Temple Oracle

Each strike
lands
in a cascade
of crimson

Raising my wand
with each spell
you push back
into me

Lines like ogham
fate read
in the red
on your flesh

Fine Rattan
flies with fury
Bamboo snapping
as it descends

Koa wood
a prayer to the gods
Birch calling
tradition home

Tools laid bare
you become
Oak and Ash
Willow and Thorn

Each howl
each moan
a sacred moment
echoes out

It’s not going to be okay
be what it was
be what yesterday whispered on the winds.

Yesterday we were comfortable
while today we have been cast
Fortuna’s lots on the gambling table.

I keep being told it will be okay
be what it was
be bold and beautiful under a mid-day sun.

I stare into empty eyes before me
solemn eyes raw from too many tears
shoulders up to ears that have heard too many lies.

It will not be the same
never the same as we skirt across
the rim of the earth’s edge into blackness.

The plagues have come
locusts and frogs from above
and I am sick of hearing that it will all be okay.

I am sick of reassurance
sick of the smiling painted masks
repeating again and again the same lines.

This tale will weave its way
along a path through shadow and loss
but it will never be the same.

Our tale will spin from here
into what it *will* be
into what tomorrow will whisper on the winds.

Leather lashes
my salacious flesh
beating
in
time
with our questing hearts

Sweat pouring
down heavenly bodies
drumming
out
the noises
around us

Magician in black leather
Priest draped in desire
beat me down
into
the truths
called mystery

Set the rhythm
and ride my hide
to the other side
of the veil

Kiss me desert poet
who keeps the cave lit
Candles that beg
never return
Beautiful and terrible Lord

Show me the elegance
of sandstorm affairs
Hardened hands that cry
more oh more
Secret and sensual lover

Beyond the stone walls
where you fortify your heart
A rose rises
up from the sand
Into our heavy hearts

I never spoke the tongue
that kissed my lips
Serpent sweet
snakes entwining
Our long hair entangled

Dark angel screaming moans
dark angel don’t come back
As candles beg
never return
Beautiful and terrible Lord

You are dripping down my chin again
though I have not seen you in months
a dream cast in fresh spices and honeyed wine
succulent sweet
your sweat lapped up by my tongue
nails dug into tender flesh
chains and canes thumping across your skin
bent and bowed before my boots
a willow in the dimmed light

Feral growls erupt from your throat
fangs dig in to find a pulse and latch on
breathing my ghostly apparitions away
candle lit and heady in my mouth
eyes locked in the shade
of your long and limber branches
mango filling my senses
dancing into dream

Teases and travails
lay out the smoldering heat
of your need
face to face
in a single breath
emerald lines
clinging to your eyes
as palms and psalms
sing of love for a moment
until I unbind you
and mourn every line

Flowing force of nature
you became my prophetess
my speaker of truths

Who was I to deny
the substance of your burning psyche
passions unfolding under an open sky

You let me open the crypt
step by step down into you
languid in our mysteries

Who was I to dream
the hopes forgotten by men and women
curling desires of those who walk between

Touched by Cassandra
I needed you
but never believed you

Dancing towards tomorrow
I wanted you
but never heeded your call

(for Black Mother)

I feel your icy hands
talons digging into my spine
blink me dry
a thousand eyes of a venomous mother

Open up your craving mouth
devour me with every touch
toxic caresses
deep within the cave

Bare my chest
heart beating in a thunderous noise
screaming out loud
in dripping crimson

Wrap me in shadowed sighs
open me up to your ravishment
signs of coming horror
mutilation of our dreams

Hooves stamp in the world below
echoing in my bones
as I dance I dance
into your icy hands

Crocodile tears penetrate the mud
Protector of aching before the temple door

Give me scales scraping across my fur
Snapping a massive maw as a sign of affection

Claws run through hair you never had
Lips bleeding against your feral grin

Slit eyes light up beneath a rough exterior
Lashing out against my earthly core

You are my Sobek between the sheets
Above the river caked with our passions

Impossible shape sinking down into dreams
Twisting and turning in your beloved Nile

In the darkness
your relics rise
from the obscurity
of buried places I’d forgot
were masked from view

Storming into me
pushing deep
into my hidden places
as I grunt out yes yes
under my breath

Again and again
with tears falling
like a silent rain
my fertile pain
washing away in a rising tide

I lament
as you force your way
into my breath
crying out as I gasp for air
beneath the waves

Give me more
you echo in your pulse
let me shackle you
to the rock
of your own dread

Tie me to the rock
and let the Kraken come

Bind me to the rock
and let the eagles peck

Consign me to the rock
until Ragnarok roars

Tie me to the rock
and let me drown