Trace

When I was a child I would dream
I would leave my body and sit in a stable and stare at a chestnut horse

In its stall tame and tethered
 Eye would observe from a corner in the dark
Empathy and stillness were the horse
dark coat
black eyes
I felt calm as the earth
Unsure if it longed to be free
Unsure if it minded I was there

When I was a child
Rockets, Pez and black rubber washers
were food to mother’s 8-track
Eye thought it needed them
Really it just wanted to play music
Sing from it’s mouth of rectangle

When I was a teen I dreamed of a man at the mouth of a cave
He handed me an orange
It was too soon
I wanted satsuma and orange crush
Something soft and sweet to call my own when I needed reminding of Heart
It was comforting and yet didn’t feel quite right

Eye came of age,
Dreams changed
Darkest night took hold of Heart once more

Right had its clutches 
 I lay in bed
My childhood home
Left tried to take me out the window
To deliver me with freedom
I said tine 
Speak to New

 I found the walls of my bedroom
 A mirror and a camera
Eye held the window frame with all its might

 When Eye was Art Deco, I found Heart
My dreams became golden trains passing through my dwelling
An entirely other of gold waving their hand
I waved back and it felt like a friend

Later I dreamed of  Other
 Take off my ring,
I wasn’t ready
I didn’t understand what  Other was asking so they left again

The darkness returned
It felt like 109 people and all I yearned for was one
The evil clowns made their appearance
My lover was Skikda and fire for my pet
They set my home aflame as an old woman observed with her head veiled in black and orange in the hallway

I picked myself back up 
Gingerly
Gathered my shades of pink
The fruit I loved that didn’t taste or feel quite right

Some had fallen to the floor 
Bruised, I ate it anyway 
My descent was without the three second rule
My glasses shattered
I’d find new ones when Eye was safe 

Made of roses with other flowers changing color and shape
Years would pass like a prison sentence
Minimum security with community service

The towers were still on fire
Eye put on my sunglasses
brushed off the ashes of my clothes
No
 Stop, drop, and roll
 No
 Calling Paw Patrol
 I returned to sleepyhead 
Burdensome and burdened
Sometimes I’d wake back up 
 Bury noisy visions

What I needed was found in crystal clarity
A name I couldn’t remember
Eye climbed mountains as the goat
Mined depths tangled in tree roots
Looking for diamonds as I descended

I listened to Heart speak

The name I had forgotten
She bled like Ophelia
Wandered like Goldilocks the Vagrant
A fork with two paths astray

To the left of the fork
rivers gushed
Too powerful
the damned cracked and then broke away

To the right of the fork
 A young girl in a blue dress
white apron front
Tasting porridge
Napping in beds that weren’t her own.
She sat in chairs that belonged to someone else and made a mess
Dressings and taps flowed like water in the House of Bears

Hot, cold
Finally, just right
Still not her own
The faucets kept running
The chair she loved in tattered remains

Still

She searched for the valve to the tap that fit
Jumping through windows instead of out the door
Progression happened with less frequency
The drive was still there
To find where Corporeal held their coordinates

I called her name
She turned toward me
Couldn’t yet meet Eye
The moss and earth of the forest held her attention
She hid down a rabbit hole

Thoughts of greener grass
Cats ruling domains posed for a picture
Existential questions created riddles
A Gotham villain with a sad and tragic backstory

She tried to fly again
A bird inside its cage 
door open
Garden from the window viewed
Pane too recently cleaned
Glass used to knock with her head

I called to Heart again

Like a snowbird following compass, she turned
Still  interferent
A bowl of shredded wheat
Recognition, exasperation
 Exhausted, panicked

Breathe

Eye reminds her

Breath slowly

Inhaled and exhaled

Releasing tamer demons rattling Theoi’s cage
Duality with a tin cup
On the bars they make their cells known and she turns this time toward me
I call Heart and she listens

She writes
She creates
She returns to Crete

I wait there and hold her gaze with knowing 
With Eye
Worshipping at the temple once again
A key to her own sacred self
There’s a lockbox she can see in the form of my hands

She re-wilds
 Pets the wolves while I re-wild and create with her
Holding light and dark
Emerging as a new shape
Reborn and Baptized 
water, flame, earth, aether
9 spheres connected to 10

Pelt in paradox
Steam from the water
Fog form to clouds
With evaporation and Eye
 Morning light blue, less grey

In the indigo of the moon
Mists of Psyche and Nyx

We both return to paradise
rebuilt and recycled from air
For Soul
For Other
For Purpose