Phases of the Goddess

The air is harsh cold as blue morning wraps around boney shoulders
Making the hairs on her arm stand as her hands are folded fingers curled.
Adolescent heels grazed bare against shattered and cratered sidewalks
Supple whisper of trees in the breeze dancing with wind chimes as
Her skirt licks blades of grass molding dirt into carefree seams frayed.

The sky begins to bleed like knife wounds across her spine
Turning pale flesh into indigo skin, kissing the valleys of blood streams
Fingers reaching into flesh peeling away the infantile layer to reveal a woman.
A loving soul grasping eyes of a lover
Flat belly melts away - she is crafted into a mother.
Round silver moon shining light for a new being.
She nurses an infant like the rose bud she started out as –
Giving breath into new lungs, her arms outstretched because she is the child’s wings
Until Petals like feathers begins maturing, slowly blossoming,
Turning ebony hair into ashes,
Then she begins to wane.

Her womb recedes while watching her sun struck lover turn grey
As her children bear fruit of their own, she smiles -
Shadows fall under eyes joyful and lined
Her heels grow cracked and callused like the sidewalks she walked on long ago.
Skin doesn’t cling to her bones as well as it used to
Her skirt doesn’t fall past her feet.
The wound from the sky has healed,
But is once more ripped open by the Grimm’s scythe
Her fingers clasp his bleached bones
Ready to start again – a different life.
The same phase.