~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

No better time to break free,
pull the stopper from the demon
hole, drain her phobia straight to
Hell.

Rebel Yell, in the midnight hour
she cries MOREMOREMORE!

Immersed in antique, claw-foot
bathtub propped up outside on
cement bricks.

Evil remnant to this degree will
visit with a ghost you do not
want to dance with.

Dose of canoe medicine,
a dugout to clear waterways,
transport fear of polluted
dreams.

Bow of canoe is first shaped,
woman shaped wrong,
work on widening woman's
hull.

Sweat bath heated by stones,
Native Americans heated stones
over an open fire, then layered
stones in the bottom of hollowed-out
shell of canoe to heat up boiling water
inside to stretch canoe's width.

Cover placed over shell/woman to keep
steam in cavity to soften, stretching process
to increase craft/woman's capacity and
durability.

Follow waterways of your soul.
Two rivers mark this journey.
First one is turbulent, filled with
obstacles; beaver can't cut down
any more logs for you to use to
cross river.  She needs logs for
her home.

Second river can be traveled easily
by canoe.  Row away remnant demons.

Like cedar canoe, woman has to be
free of knots and twists.

Drape yourself in community robe,
deerskin smoked to buttery brown,
saturated with sunflower oil.

Go to her.  She has reached a place
of spiritual passage.

Designed to woo under cover,
courting blanket shields from
curious stares.

When she reaches her, she displays
a considerable amount of pink flesh
from steam and dream, lined and dotted
with punctuating form of exclamation
point!

"Cover my beaver with rabbit!"
flirting, delirious from vision, vapor,
and vino mulling spices.

Pupils dilated from zenith, nostrils
flare from herbal elixirs, nipples
numbed from benzocaine, clitoris
throbs from peppermint, anus
tingles from eucalyptus, puckers
from oil of lime.

Warm wine crock levitates from coals
lifting vision agent elixir to restore
physical and mental health.

Anastasia, Greek for "Of the Resurrection,"
spring, when all of nature is renewed, revealing
the soul's immortality.

Pull the stopper, drain canoe medicine through
a pipe down trail---trail well-traveled, imprinted
with paw impressions of women on the path of
retrieval.

 

Copyright 2006 Sage Sweetwater, firebrand lesbian novelist