Twelve reasons for letting her live
The first
day she arrived
a raven was the only one to greet her
by landing in her hair
still wet from travelling through fall
The second
time the raven appeared
it was at her front steps with a broken wing
and a bloodstained note tied around its neck with an iron string
misspelling her name in red ink
The third
eye she used at night
to keep her safe through sleep
from those who wanted to burn the ground
her feet had touched
The fourth
of November
was the day they said she had been seen
riding a white wolf to every door
searching for a new soul to capture
The fifth
season only existed in the places
she had travelled through
riding panic-ally away
from their curses and torches
The sixth
candle she lit
made the star complete
as she prayed for their ignorance to fade
the shield of the flames kept her warm
The seventh
quilt she made
with brown patches of fabric from her dress
each sewn together in the pattern of a tree
with seven leaves shaped as the moons that made a year
The eighth
month she gave birth
to a baby girl after eighteen hours of brutal labour
the child took her first breath
on the raw spring-earth
The ninth
year of her daughters life
she tried to cover the girls eyes
as a group of men set fire to her belongings
and tore her child away from her clutch
The tenth
family that took her in
as a forced christian deed of good
after burning away the witch-soul of her mother
kept her feet chained in a garden shed
The eleventh
number represents new beginnings
she repeated to herself
running barefoot through the thick woods
that made her invisible to their hunt
The twelfth
autumn in her life
she arrived without greeting
except from a red-winged raven landing softly
in her wet sulfur colored hair
All rights reserved, © Lourdes Segovia Castle. Copying without permission for non-personal use is forbidden.
Poetry by Lourdes
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Written on 2006-06-16 at 10:03
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