Lorelei Kay

With Tambourines and a Kiss 

     Jephthah's Daughter

 

 To mourn my virginity . . .

            by allotting sixty days

for me yet to consider my doom

upon our mountains

before my father’s word

will sear my fate with flames

and I become his offering

unto his god to prove his vow.

To mourn . . . my father’s thoughtlessness

for who crosses o’er his threshold,

driven by his lust

for victory waging war. 

To mourn . . . the hundred golden suns,

and a myriad silver moonbeams

never to rise or spill

their light upon my face.

To mourn . . . the passion of a lover’s

kiss to never touch my lips,  

and the children who’ll never

suckle at my breast.

To mourn . . . another causality of war—

all because a loving daughter

ran to greet her father,

with dancing, and a kiss. 

  

 

The Pulsing Surf  

 

The surf pounds her white-edged fists

into the sandy beach where I stand.

The sound of slapping water echoes in my ears

as chilled sea breezes whip overhead.

 

Seagulls shriek and circle above me,

flapping through their frantic air dance

as particles of sand attach themselves

to the soles of my feet.

 

The majesty of the sea expands

before me and I’m filled with awe

to exist as a small part of this wonder

we call nature.

 

God stands revealed in the sea—

her white-crested tresses wash the shore clean,

then retreats afar, bouncing kayaks and ships

along the arch of her extended back.

 

Shimmering in the sun, she laps around islands

and gathers continents in her graceful arms.

Fiercely she holds all life in her pulsing grasp.

Heavy with labor pains, contracting and releasing,

 

she howls as she births humanity in her depths

then hurls us onto sandy beaches to crawl

ashore clothed only in her image. My inborn

legacy comes from the depths of the eternal sea.

 

My every strength and weakness, rise and fall,

I inherit from her. When my moon wanes, the water

will call. A wave will build momentum, change into

a curling wall of wetness, and roar toward me.

 

I’ll release myself into its white froth

as the ocean eternally pulses, its churning

ebb and flow, its roiling rise and fall—

I’ll be transformed, and free.

 

 

 

Counting Sheep Wallpaper by Higgleberry Hill

 (www.HiggleberyHill.com) Used with permission

 

 

SEEKING SLEEP

 

My life would be so wonderful

    if I could only sleep.

If I could snooze through midnight hours

    instead of counting sheep.

 

My life would be so wonderful  

    if dream ships came in fleets.    

If I could sail the Land of Nod  

    with moonbeams at my feet.  

 

My life would be so wonderful

    if I could just entreat     

the Milky Way to serenade    

    so I could slumber deep

 

My life would be so wonderful

    if starlight graced my sheets,        

so I could find Nirvana land    

    and finally…get some sleep.