The Raven’s Tale: A Myth Reimagined
(an ekphrastic collaboration w/Ana Balzan to be published in the 40 West Ekphrastic Anthology by Twenty Bellows)
Raven headed Goddess,
how so like Venus, reborn of the Ocean
You’ve pried us open – holding the heavens –
celestial siblings of Illumination & Reflection
wings white as roiling, waves crashing –
all rivers spilled from your strange singing,
and wild medicine grew from your garden
bare breasted, fearsome, free –
this is the image of Woman as She was meant to be,
wearing wings
Trickster sculpts Herself into new figure – the Creator,
who brought fire; not stolen, but freely given;
sacred fire born of the sacred Feminine – this raucous Raven whom men painted black with the ash of their own desire, drunk on the power of fire; called you unkindness, a bad omen; dressed up a folk hero to justify their own libido, sticking their beaks in everything – burned you black, like black blood; their fingers fondling beneath your feathers, like spoiled children who’ve forgotten their Mother’s temper – Raven waited while we threw our tantrums in embers & industrialization
Nevermore shall Her gift be squandered
Remember, it was always black inside Her body,
black like feathers burned on the altar
Womb is the only place light never touches, until She, split open, like clam shells, the original cavern, primordial Ocean from which we came crawling, squawking, we’re emerging, held in Her talons
Women & Ravens do not wait for the door to be opened
but knock with a darkness, a sharp tongue,
your time has come
