..
We give her wings, knowing
she will leave us. Knowing she
will take all this glorious bold
jade skin and match it to the sky.
We etch her scales with salt
and sea and sorrow and hope,
knowing she will ache and sing,
knowing she will conquer, smile.
We weave her teeth with words
and wind, knowing she will stretch
out tongue and taste the sour,
savor the sweet. We know she’ll
breathe fire, leave ash in her wake,
wake the dawn with her roar, score
the earth with her scorch-sting. We
feel her heat, her unsprung heart,
the way it stops and starts and fears
no thing. We play with light and dark
and quiet sparks and bright crimson and
small slow indigo sway. We know she’ll
love and hate us. We fold and form and
plant and poem and make her anyway.
..
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Sound, structure, imagery–this is amazingly beautiful.
Reblogged this on Our Mythologies are Our History.
Absolute wonderment.
I LOVE this one. Especially that tag that says “raising a daughter.” SO spot-on.
These are my favorites:
“Knowing she
will take all this glorious bold
jade skin and match it to the sky.”
“knowing she will conquer, smile” … Without the comma, this means she also has the power to destroy every smile. That’s exactly what a teenager’s like. 🙂
“knowing she will stretch
out tongue” … I love “out-tongue” as a verb. Because if anyone can out-tongue you, it’s a female teen. Momma can’t ever win an argument, but by saying “THAT’S IT!”
“leave ash in her wake,
wake the dawn with her roar, score
the earth with her scorch-sting. We
feel her heat, her unsprung heart”
Awesome ending too. Totally just flipping super coolio. 🙂
That is one heck of an extended metaphor, De. Wonderful.
play with light and dark
and quiet sparks and bright crimson
One expects the dragon to go along its own way. One is not to mess around with those bent on making their own fortunes on their own!
Hank
Beautifully captured. And isn’t this what “parenting” is all about!
I love how you used “poem” as a verb.
My favourite words: “and make her anyway.”
I am going to share this with my daughters! 🙂
Because we made them anyway. 🙂