Here she comes, humming across seas, tirelessly
roaming plains, with the strength and swiftness of mare.
She has much to accomplish.
A circle of light, her cornet spikes
show who is throwing the party.
All morning a crow watches, as I clean my windows,
a goldfinch, its head the colours of a flag, sings red
white and black liberation. Shoots emerge,
pink Camellias, winter trees bud, fields emerald,
a hue of lilac, Aubrietia, pale primrose.
Cars have slowed. Aeroplanes stopped.
Sailors docked. Stock markets crash. We cannot buy
our way out of this, other Byzantium.
One empire: Nature.
A greenfinch chirps from the hawthorn,
a thrush perched high in Ash joins her chorus, swallows,
only a few days away, soar the ocean. Animals,
plants safe from her diadems, reminds us, how to ‘be’.
The sun on the cusp of equinox, daffodils open their yellow,
Brent geese fly over homes, pollution clears,
and rats have begun to return to the sewers.
Don’t be afraid, the sky pure, its blue reflects in clean waters,
swans have taken up residence in floods. The earth, her choked
body can breathe. She speaks, not words, but a garland
to silence our noise, compel us to begin again, listen.
She is queen, high priestess, art of the possible,
she is on the offence, in defence of what’s lost.
You will not win this war unless you surrender.
It is said many will die. Ancients
believed whoever gets the crown is elevated in the other world.
Five minutes after you leave
you will not remember this life.
We are all equal now, no less than the grace of egret, white
feathers in flight, Gaia choses dark, her mystic a bat, jewel
host to a new Christ; Stillness. Robin with its plumped up
breast, beak wide open– You once knew how to be kind,
your dreams always taking you home.
You have arrived in her great return, here she is,
carrying the crown.
Today is the day, her coronation.
……………..
Attracta Fahy’s background is in Nursing/Social Care. She lives in Co.Galway, works as a Psychotherapist, and is mother to three children. She earned her MA in Writing NUIG in 2017. Her poems have been published in many magazines at home and abroad. She was the October winner in Irish Times; New Irish Writing 2019, was nominated for Pushcart 2018, Best of the Web 2019, shortlisted for 2018 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year, and long listed in 2019, shortlisted for Allingham Poetry Prize 2019. She was a featured reader in January Over The Edge Poetry Reading. Fly on the Wall Poetry Press published her debut chapbook Dinner in the Fields in March 2020.
Wonderful poem, I loved every word of it. Thank you for posting.