I came out of a cauldron
before the fire settled
and walked across the flames
into the landscape made for me.
They found my marks and accepted me,
arms open,
into their honeyed coven.
The bees swarmed me.
The branches of the trees bowed to shade me.
When they asked who made me
I answered that I made myself
Out of what chaos provided.
I snatched here and there
for the pulse of the dying planet,
the breath of the solar wind,
the dark matter made light by my own desire
to be born
into a life of problems and rewards.
The wolf suckled me.
The owl watched over me.
The toad sat upon my infant chest, delighting me.
And I never knew,
Until the first child I ran to touch,
Threw a stone at my head,
That the world did not accept
A self-made maiden.
About the Author
Christine Emmert has lived a long life, enjoying careers as an actress, writer, and educator. Her novel, ISMENE, was released in December, and she has been published in three countries as a playwright. Living with her husband, Richard, in the woodlands of Pennsylvania, she is concerned with all those tempests that shake our world. She can be seen soon in THE JUDAS KISS, a production of Invictus Films.
About Misty Ericson
