…………………….(In Memory of *Janine Pommy Vega)
Three towns burning
Shiva’s bow drawn
Three towns being born
Five skulls hanging from Kali’s belt
Five suns glowing on Kali’s breast
Seven warrior queens birthed from seven peyote dreams
Nine princes freed from nine prison blocks
Ten children freed from ten coffins of black
Twelve panthers birthed from twelve volcano hearts
Galaxies within galaxies
Meteor showers in Gemini play all night long
All the lullabies of all the mothers of Greece, Bosnia, Croatia, Spain, Mexico,
Peru, France, England, Scandinavia, Ireland, Israel, Nepal, India, and Italy
All the witchcraft
All the prayer
All the lovemaking
All the songmaking
All the healing
Tracking the serpent to
Peaks of the Andes
Amazon jungles
Stonehenge
Pilgrim shrines on Himalayan slopes
Isla del Sol in Lake Titicaca
Greenwich Village cafés
Migrant camps
Maximum security prisons
Woodstock streets
A cottage in Willow
Autumnal ridge of Wheeler Hill—the last place I saw you, among poets
All these in Janine’s song
All these in Janine’s gourd-rattle dance
All these in Janine’s corazón
All these in Janine’s smile
*Janine Pommy Vega (1942-2010) was an American poet, maverick, hippie, and humanitarian.
Grey Sparrow Journal 