Up Bear Creek 8dec26013

Freckles

Photo by Sara Mae Friedberg

 

“The friendship of fools is sweet as wine.

But the tastelessness of the wise

brings true affection.”

-Thomas Merton’s The Way of Chuang Tzu

No, it wasn’t your tattoos that drew me to you, Mary

Faery, though your will blazed a fierce rainbow blue

amid galaxies discrete as your Scorpio purse of balm

& obsidian. Hailing from a long lineage of Dakinis:

Guanyin, Green Tara, Our Lady of Guadalupe

Privy to angelic transmissions beyond my ken

You embodied for me Kali & perfect sweetness

Giggling between greetings. Turning intractable

stone. A girlish smile. Indigenous traits learned

at Nagponi where you waged bureaucratic aikido

peace-corpsed in the Philippines & through

high drama, death threats, Marcos & Aquino

found your band of Ati title to the village plots

they called home. More Kennedy than Friedberg

But precise. And no, lass, ‘twas not for your warmth

tale be told, I pursued, for you were sharp as a dart

shot in the quick of the hunt. If need be, you spoke

goddess truth, regardless of icy consequence, &

calmly apprehended even tongues not known

under stress, in a mob, knife at your throat. And

though my internal Nagasaki obaasan didn’t like

the fist in your mama’s gypsy brogue, I admired you

for your brazen gracelessness. Unabashed. ‘Specially

when it cost me in argument – a price most dear for

brothers like Jimbo & I who prize disputationem -- that

rational Western Civ badminton, crucial for male coming to

understanding, but which you despised, favoring the blink

of gestalt. Of channeled voices. Of silence over sophistry

So, yes, be-rainbowed, I fell in love with your kindness

& the wild poof of your hair. And we made haste

in our kindnesses. Called them children. Danced alone

As a couple. Around fairy mushroom rings. Drummed

& ommed together -- even unto your last breath

A candle. Hot wax. Freckles of lavender & myrrh