Prayer flags

Persephones' Prayer Flag

she of the serpents stays among the trees curled in the moss
unwilling to leave
watched anxiously from afar
by her wayward donkey
and careful eyes of her human companions (human? if a horned woman is thus so)
who know so little of her (although the horned woman knows more but says little)
their beloved buried in sifted bone too deep to reach
only faith to push them forward

she has changed
her garments shredded as a snake would shed its skin
the neat blouse in tatters the skirt & petticoat flutters in petals
no boots but some where she has acquired thin slippers of skin
(do not look too closely)

she will rise and return to the place of her dance
followed by her donkey unwillingly but pulled by an invisible cord
she sifts through dust to find
a snake skin of red in the fading sun
which she lifts in two hands for it is long so long to be a garment of her own

and on it inscribed in ancient language the flick of a tongue a serpent’s grace

snakeskin

she hangs it in the place of the prayer flags
for it is a prayer flag of her body
the wind takes it the sun for a moment
blazes through it blood red and the writing writhes in silver for an instant

if one is watching close

~senua~