ERESHKIGAL

It's been a long time now.
Up there,
I hear the din.

I live below.
Transparent velvet, coiled and waiting.
Cool and dim.

My lunar eye is lit with old memory.
My huge hips hold caverns of souls.

Cold the void, the in-between, the liminal life.
Cruel heavy waters roil around my heart.
Bitter seeds spit from my widow's mouth.

I am ancient.
I am slow.
Slower than the rocks, slower than the ocean floor.
Ages go by, stars spiral on my belly.

The O, and the Oh! The nothingness I know.
This eye of death is quinine clear.
Your secrets murmur, they are deafening.

My birthing time is near.

© Claudia Bader, 2000