Untie from me this striped tail beneath my dress,
this persimmon tree
where I search out my children’s shadows
with rough and hairy hands
Don’t throw me a rotten rope
as I climb to heaven
leaving me scattered and crushed
like seeds in a millet field
Reel in stone gods towards my offered rice cakes
and wide-brimmed hats;
keep the demons in their boxes
bound up with promises of sparrow’s gold
Unleash a summer snowfall
on a hill where I lie down
with ghosts of grass stems
shocked and razed for your devotion
Unspool a bridge across the Milky Way
River that keeps me from my love –
As ravens shed their feathers with my every step
let not my tears drown the villagers where they sleep
Copyright 2016, Carrie Myers. Originally published in Feminist Spaces. Volume 2, Issue 2, Spring / Summer 2016.