LJ Idol - Wheel of Chaos - Wk 7 - Oxytocin Loop

 

She was asleep, dreaming. And in the dream

there was a girl child,

innocent but serious, opened but mysterious,

blonde ringlets and bare footed

Running to and fro

A forgotten joyousness ensouled

They were upstairs, in his front room, all of them

Herself and himself,

her summer girls and their goat boys,

his messenger and boatman,

and even the moon. Lounging as was their wont,

drinking and smoking, bantering and laughing

listening to the grandmother clock tick the seconds

as though each minute was a favourite song

The child a focus of no one’s attention

but her own

and she was fiercely focused

because somehow

the girl child had found her secret heart,

clutching it against her body with both hands as she scampered

Let me see, she told the child,

show me what you have there

Imploring and intentful

Aware she did not want to frighten her

When at last she heeded,

Solemnly obeying,

Coming forward, leaning against her knees,

she gently gently lifted her heart from the offering hands

and settled back into a rocking chair

beside a hearth

She opened her blouse to offer her breast

because her heart was a nursling daughter,

slick with blood and vernix and

new born.

Wake up, he whispered.

LJ Idol - Wheel of Chaos - Wk 7 - BAT

 

He lay beside her

Listening to her breathe

For two

played that over in his mind and thought no

For three

For each of us

she breathes

When he fell into sleep he dreamt

He was inside the earth, inside a cave

Dark but safe

A hearth fire

Flame light flickering on the walls

Blood red and illuminating two figures seated beside it

Naked and on all fours crawling forward

The distance was exhausting

On his belly pulling 

Across the floor of the earthen womb

The two were women

Mother

Crone

paying him no attention

Murmuring to each other

In voices muffled to his ear

But familiar and for a long moment

He lay content and felt the world expand

In the dream he became aware

It was time to wake

He pulled his body upward to a lotus and watched the two

Through slitted eyes as though the dim

Fire light was sun light

Here’s the secret

Keep it secret

I cannot

You must be able to

Don’t tell me

Please don't tell me it

The mother held her newborn to her breast

This is the weaver, she told him

She showed him the cord

anchored inside her body

Tethered to the child

this is the measure

the crone reached across with glinting shears

and cut