Hepzibah made her way for a time until help arrived
Remembering the time before
Hodegetria
recalls pain so total
it is its own place.
wilderness my footsteps
I know not how
guided ever by the sun’s magnetic pull
East, always only facing East
Negotiating with the headache—displaced—too small a word
for the seismic disruption
I learned to breathe from a different place
moving even dancing to distract and channel and diffuse
energy of agony from solid into ether, into time passed
Small mercies, like falling asleep, my greatest treasures.
Thank God for the Land, who held me every step
Embraced my hideousness with wildflowers and boulders.
Too stunned to weep I walked
until at last the ocean
cold salt, bright light I could feel in my bones
binding open edges
On the beach I met a man a ghoul
I was so alone I thought
he was going to overpower me
She met me there
Stella Maris
of perpetual sorrow
Perpetual help
Our Lady of the Way
She said as she has said to ancestors of mine, Get up.
Get up, and eat. She said this with a whinny and I felt her warm coat amid the briny air.
Of course she brought me an apple. Horses love those.