Where light and darkness wed . . .

Look what was sown by the stars,

At night, across the fields.

We are not defined by scars at all,

But by the incredible ability to heal.

Here are the past messages of the first born,

The last words of the front,

The first waves of spring tides,

Where night bathes the sun.

Fallen

Fallen

The bridge between girl and woman,

Between found and lost,

Between caught and fallen,

Between faith and frost.

She may turn to salt

Should her head turn.

The guilt like silt, the fault,

Burn, burn and burn.

That mother falls from daughter

And flies from the ridge,

That this is thicker than water

Which runs under the bridge.

That swells by the banks

And fights immovable rocks,

That spills over ledges

In the rapids of unwashed.

I am your son!

And you did not fall,

And I did not fall from you

At all: not at all.

I came from those rivers.

You floated amongst reeds.

I rise from the fallen,

The swollen seed.

Let go. They said, let go.

Unworthy unwashed,

The discordant lullaby,

What lament of loss.

They may have burned

The birth ribbon,

But of all things I have learned

You are forgiven.

You are not to blame,

Not the carrier of gifts,

Not the winged flame,

Famed heroine of myth.

Bring me Artemis with her hounds,

And Antigone with soil in her hair,

Bring me Athena and Boudica alive,

Bring Jane Eyre.

Bring me Gaea, the daughter of chaos,

Bring me Daphne and her olive roots,

Bring me Lisbeth Salander,

The girl with the dragon tattoo.

Bring me Ursula of the oceans,

Helen and her thousand ships,

Bring Sethe and Fevvers,

And Medusa with blood on her lips.

Bring me Eve, bring Ruth,

Bring me Mary after the birth,

Bring back Medeba on her chariot,

Bring Rhea, goddess of earth.

Bring me Pandora with hope,

Bring me fierce Delilah,

Bring me Persephone in spring,

Bring the Queen of Sheba.

And tell them of the fallen,

Of the bad blooded women,

Of the unwashed unbelievers,

The unforgiven.

Though I am the son of sullen,

I have found my calling.

They say you fell from grace,

But you were never fallen.

Simply on the bridge between girl and woman,

Between found and lost,

Between caught and fallen,

Between faith and frost.

Belong

Belong

Have you seen the churches of Lalibela?

Swum in the warm springs of Addis Ababa?

Have you heard the reaching Nile

Of the bible and the Koran, my Abyssinia?

Have you heard whispering widow peaks of sand?

Seen the reeling rainbows as Victoria falls?

Felt the mists on the Simien mountains

And the dust clouds of Harare’s hyenas call?

And did you see the gentle man taken,

Then imprisoned for twenty-five years,

Who walked out of chains and became president,

And who faced down the world’s fears?

Did you see his example to the world,

How he embraced his adversary,