To place fragility on a cliff edge
Is to say one thing and say something completely different
But some take the danger of a contradiction and feel solace in it
Some are grown in it and feel it in their veins
They say "take it" while knowing that no one ever will
Rome was never built in a day
Though I suppose there was the day before the last rock was laid in the last cobbled street in the last inch to be filled where one thought
What if it all fell? What would we do then?
I don't believe that one should be allowed to build cities with fear
But neither with false gods
Hold your tongue before blasphemy I'm speaking to Genesis
I speak to the naked woman in your temple
I speak to your high priestess
I speak to Sekhmet and Bastet
I speak to Persephone
I speak to Hel
I speak to Kali
I speak to Angela Davis
I speak to Mary Shelley
I ask you
Before you were so full of strength and before you were fed
How did you deal with the place of transition?
The state of limbo
Where sea birds would promise you their eggs? Only to show they would rather let them crack before giving them to you to eat?
I bow my head and I feel the rumble of the scalding lava as they erupt from below
My skin is burned
My vision is blurry
Old Gods
Forgotten Gods
Gods in their caskets
Their bones full of voodoo and rich in power
Please mothers rise
I ask again how they managed to grow?
While the birds would scorn them so
Leaving them empty of substance but full of broken promises
Child they say in many languages swirled in one
CHILD they call me
GIRL
YOUNGLING
SPAWN
SEEDLING
CUB
HATCHLING
KIN
You must eat the birds
But how?
I gurgle to them as they tower above me
I feel the heat and my thin flesh will soon abandon me
So I point to my gums
How?
They will fly to you
They are fools for they carry only flight
Their shield is only feathers and a beak
Feel their claws as light as kisses
Smell their stink of salt and ignorance
Take this for seasoning
Let them caw at you
Their flesh may soon smell sweet
Your fangs will descend and they will call you a monster by many names
Call them by one
Dinner