Running Water

She's haunting me alive,
her ghost across these miles finds me in my sleep
to rip me away from idleness.
I don't know where she came from,
I don't know why she's here,
I don't know where she wants me to go.

They say running water expels clinging souls.

Tonight the procession goes to the spirits
of light and rain, lords of continuity
outside the walls she helped us build.

They live in a beautiful garden, a faerie ring
where nobody goes alone with their body
and no one comes out alone in their mind

a beautiful place, a liminal place,
a death room
within the space of stone
and brine

It's our ancestral dwelling,
the heroic ring
I deliver her for inquisition

“What do you want from me?” I ask,
and she tortures my confession out

“You were the Muse I denied
firstborn ambitions
advancement always away I hoped
until you left me in the wilderness
to find a trail that led
from desert to sea.”

Her airy form bows dead eyes
and nods at me

“I am the Muse you denied,
I taught you passion and ire.
Fulfill what you promised yourself:
your exit is paved by my breath, it lies.”