The ceremony

You laid down your mask
And drank me into your secret.
Those spirals of ecstasy
Where the grandmothers are the guardians
Players of light and dark
Blowing shadows of smoke
On the faces that gather to celebrate in our awakening.
For all the blood spilt;
This is the reclaiming
This is the ceremony
The meeting of prayers buried in the cinders
Bring the bones back to dance
Where the flesh is forgotten and hands are laid down
To feel the earth breathing and beating with love
The waters that carry the promise of new life are the offering
Death is the rhythm that shakes
Me from my memories
To remembering.
Poem by Lucy Rebecca Horwood’
