The Weasel Sisters

They were narrow wiggly girls,

snuggling on one mother-woven blanket,

staring at stars with star-struck wonder.

“Pick one! I see mine!

Oh, good, we each chose our own,

so we’ll never fight!

Mine’s best, but yours is a good star too.

(Mine’s bigger.)

If yours came down,

I mean a star-man,

but someone you can hold onto

and not burn up,

would you go with him?

Up there I mean?

I wouldn’t either,

not without you;

but if we could both go,

if they were star-brothers?

O let’s! Let’s wish on our stars,

close our eyes and open them:

O my dear! O my stars!

They’re here! They’re real!

They came for us—so beautiful!

Hold my hand.

Let’s not be scared.

Let’s be Star Maidens now.”

What happened then? How did they feel?

What tarnish turned their stars to tinsel tin?

And why (does no one recall?)

did the Star-Sisters (jump or fall?)

choose to return to earth again,

without their star men?

_________________________________________

The star husbands sternly forbid the weasel sisters

to lift the stone, so of course they did.

When no one was looking,

they pried it up and peeked in.

It was a door opening to a world below.

"What are we doing here? Why do we stay

starry-eyed in a dream world,

when the real world, our true home,

green and blue serpent-twined

body of health and life,

awaits, calling us

to root ourselves, to feel the ground of truth

solid and nurturing beneath our feet?"

They were brown then; they are white today,

with so much to do, and the urgent sense

to do it now.

_____________________________________________________

When the weasel sisters dived back down,

tired of stardom and star-men,

ready to really live again,

some say they got caught high up,

trapped at the top of a bare-trunk tree.

(Unity of earth and sky,

radiating life-force,

they can never die!

Strange vantage point!

Nowhere, aware,

such danger of falling,

stars calling beware!)

Then the nightmare of futile calling,

desperation, fear of falling...

animal suitors willing to help

only in exchange for slavery,

all the refusals, stellar bravery!

"Only trickery can counter treachery,

weasel-y wiles to escape from lechery!

Wolverine's no worse than the rest.

We can dig to freedom from his dank nest."

Never alone, they had each other,

wisdom womben then,

ermine-white, with magic wands,

experienced with night.

(Mi’kmaq myth)

© Tamara Rasmussen 2018