keeping watch

 

i. north
i sit at the foot of snow-capped mountains
i listen to sounds older than my heart
beats on a hollow drum squeals of a grey whale
i admire the gilded scales of long fishes
we are survivors
 

ii. east
i wear pearls and silk
my hands hold threads gathered from the spectrum
i weave my own diaphanous shroud
butterflies light on my shoulder
i move among the birds of paradise my heart open

iii. south
i rock in a hand-me-down chair
keeping time with a paper fan
humming bye and bye
petunias blossom in a window box
a bubbling cobbler cools on the sill
i soak my feet in warm rain water
alone but not lonely

iv. west
wrapped in a blanket of history
i reside on the horizon
winds storm across my breast
outside my door
desert flowers tend themselves
dust devils dance in the july heat
from chiseled sand and sacred clay
my fingers mold a vessel for the water's journey
i chew soft a brush made of yucca
i paint legends of the earth on its body
i tend the fire in which it will harden
i no longer hunger for love

v.
my soul is joyous
i wait for Illumination
i listen for the choir of angels
with whom i will sing
 

©Sojourner K. Rolle-1998
All rights reserved

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