Medicine Bag
A bag too small for summer
and not so big as a heart
but sufficient for
crucible's residue
burnt fine,
ash and
the errata and
the mouse-bones
of dreams.
I wrapped these things
in heat and feathers,
with the sleep
of flowers laid on them
into its soft doeskin dried
in salt,
beaded with the name of dusk, that
kings' song of battleroar
lost to cricket-harps;
my talisman ticket,
my blue rose bag of wishes;
to close
or to open so
the petal that falls
is the drift of your step,
is the corn-colored wind,
the easy air
that knew your face
by starlight, your bright cadence
your fragrance and the savor
of meadow moon sun-broken
floating on the slope
before the raven's rattle,
before the long defeat.
~July 2017
Process note: The phrase 'the long defeat' is spoken by Galadriel in the seventh chapter of The Fellowship of The Ring, by J.R. Tolkien: “For the Lord of the Galadhrim is accounted the wisest of the Elves of Middle-Earth, and a
giver of gifts beyond the power of kings. He has dwelt in the West since
the days of dawn... I have dwelt with him years uncounted,...and
together through ages of the world we have fought the long defeat.” It's become something of a catchphrase among Christians and/or conservatives, but we won't let that stop us from appreciating the metaphor.
Image: Native American Medicine Bag, author unknown, via internet; fair use
