She-Bear

I Am the Fore-Bearer, Cave Bear,

Great She-Bear who bears all,

Ursula, Callista, Artemis,

I dance, Eternal, from the Beginning,

pregnant with Self

in the cave of My womb,

My body dark as My lair,

My cloak, the sea.

Mother Madonna, Dona the All-Giver,

I bear you always safely

in the sheltering shrine of My body,

through the long winter of gestation.

I birth you from the good dark

between My legs

into springtime newness,

into light and spiraling truth.

My tongue licks

My amorphous stillborn cubs

sensually,

into all the shapes and forms of life.

I bare My breast for you. The stars

are teats on My endless flanks:

eternity, infinity of nurturing.

You nuzzle in the furry dark,

breathing in time to My beating heart.

When I move in My sleep,

space finds a new way of curving.

You have so many questions

but the answers can wait till spring.

Sleeping and dreaming, I heal all, fulfill all.

My purr snores through your sleep as vision.

I embody gentleness, strength, and wisdom.

Anna before time, Perenna,

My roaring mouth

is the fanged, devouring cave of chaos,

tomb of all.

Peacefully I crunch lives

like sweet berries, sweet ants.

My clawed paw

rakes a staff for music

across the face of night:

each world a note

in My cosmic song.

© Tamara Rasmussen 2018