
Initiation by Leila Farjami
I am built of
moonstone and riverine ecstasy.
Listen! A seagull jumps in a wave.
Look! A bird of paradise
unfurls her orange
and purple becoming.
In my hands, I hold
an unbounded universe;
a moment of the all,
unassuming and ubiquitous.
My voice is the voice of
the women who stand behind me
and the fort of sisters
who stand behind them.
I remember
gold dirt
imprinted
with your footsteps.
children playing
in the abundance
of afternoon air
and laughter.
Their hearts were enough,
and so
is mine.
I want to tell you
that a flock of starlings
has crossed the moon,
and a meteor
has landed
on the front lawn
like a shiny, red apple.
Our mothers' stories
write themselves—
two ghostly hands
over
a typewriter,
and the night
is a nymph who bears her naked breasts
in the orphic orb of the dark.
Now
I will place these blooming thistles
on the alter;
I will pray for another spring
to sprout
through rain-soaked stone.