Linda L Barton

Fire Dance      
          -- Bhutan November 2000

The young boy  
Maybe seven                                      
In the dark,   
Held it tight
Tighter than I have ever been held
He led me through a small gate
We were crushed and
I worried for him
His size
I wonder why me
He wanted something from me
Not what I had expected
But to tell me to
Go slow
Be careful and watch for my life
His body shook and I knew
He feared for his  
I moved slowly  
He pulled me past the others
Another way  
He ran dragging my feet
Over craters and voices
After a lifetime   
He left me dangling like  
Wilted irises
Planted 
People swimming around me
Pushing, yelling in fire light    
He evaporated in darkness
To run through the burning wall
The Dance 
Our hands never met again 
The smell of smoke
Hangs like a skirt
Made of questions I cannot ask.

Reprinted from Sisters Singing:  Incantations, Blessings, Prayers, Art, Songs and sacred Stories by Women  
Carolyn Bright Flynn, Editor (Wild Girl Publishing)

By the way…

What did happen to diplomacy?
Just up and left, one day.

Couldn’t take it, the pressure.
I think she was embarrassed too.

Maybe on leave in the Caribbean.
At the beach clearing her throat.

Or held hostage, then forgot.
Like stale cookies.

Hiding with the moon
Waiting for this all to blow over.

She is out there.
Ready to dance.

      “Use your words”.
We tell our children on the playground of life,
      “Use your words”.

_____________________________

Change The Locks Already

Someone broke in last night
Glued cottage cheese to
My thighs and behind
I cannot rid of it.

Someone broke in last night
Pulled at my scalp
Thankfully I fought her off.

Someone broke in last night
Water colored my teeth,
A most odd yellow.
`
Someone broke in last night
And made me
Get up five times
To pee. 

Someone broke in last night
Stuck hairs on my chin
Made of wire 
Which do not tickle.

Someone broke in last night
Left seven pairs of
Reading glasses
Throughout the house.

Someone broke in last night
And left Sudoko, Crosswords,  
Scrabble and jigsaw puzzles
As penance.

 Someone broke in last night
And stole my face off
The bathroom mirror
Replacing it with some beautiful crone.

Some one broke in last night
And whispered mysteries
In my ear 
Unraveling a silence.

Last night
So much stolen
So much changed.