TISSI GERMAN
WO-E-MAN
*
Your heavens open
down climbs the sooty winged
hands around the silver rope,
naked beneath her spiderweb robe
and barefoot.
Sounds of other wings
and a song only a mother could love
they are nesting in coarse curly hair,
fluttering about with sticks and moss,
croaking a song about fire and earth
like a halo crossing burning lips
while feet dance a path through rainsoaked soil.
And so I exist
in truth and in the present.
Trees bending over rocks are
translating secrets of depths in lakes
teaching me the ancient language of living
Fed by earth and the rains
I grow
fire in hands held high above head.
Walk on.
Adapt and remember not but this
How born and where is of no importance.
Crow crown in grass and I spin
circle by circle after circle and circle
the web shimmering around me
as moonsparkle or silvery rain
while Day plays his evening waltz.
Wings spread, hair thrown back
and the lake gasps
or is it you
I see you not
sense only the love your eyes make
in the gossipy whispers of the bushes
and the meaning looks
in the eyecorners of the dusk.........
***
Ice eyed and strong
your magic blows in over mine
like the wind blows over the earth,
pulls up clouds of sand from beneath my feet
and lets me dance
like a ballerina of star stuff
or light of moon
am I
as light
and as shimmering
as dust of gold
tickle your hand.
Already you know
as well as I,
you could whisper my secret name
try forgetting
breathe it into mine or another's ear
past your lips it still will force itself
and storm out of your heart
I am not largely grown
yet not small
I put my foot down and your world quakes,
like that sunkiss
whose body was once twisted
between my thighs.
Drank skin, I did,
like the most shameless of all harlots
touched, with noisy fingertips
a soul that was once quiet.
He grew warm
eventually
worshipped me through all the ages of one breath.
Easy.
Like so.
Do as you like.
You can attempt escape
run all the way to the outskirt of the borderless
and wish to never come home,
if I throw my webs
you can but shine...
The other world
harsh and cold
skyscrapes filled with questions and smart replies.
Are you the one to discipline me?
Are you the one to teach me to be
neither one or the other?
I was not made by man alone.
I live my life with the red soil and the snake
I warm by the lion, wear nests of crow and keep my head high
not to crush the eggs
don't try disciplining me
chase not
and wish not to catch
let me put my own foot in your trap.
Here.
Music for your foot:
taptap taptap taptap
and all of Eden will listen.
I hear
a drum
a rain
a wounded animals escape through the snow
you hear
the ticking of a clock
a dripping fosse
a mans slow walk through a woman
still
the rhythm is the same as
the beating of the great Heart.
***
Honest attempts.
Tiptoe into darkened room just to hear your nostrils shiver
have I once again brought the smell of softening leafs?
I know you see my efforts to be neither
or less than exactly what you want;
a woman without any marks of
yesterdays laughters
on my shawl covered neck.
One sip of sweetness
and your eyes play the same melody
as a sunbeam in the winter.
Red berries, flowers, rainsongs and old yellowed leafs
fall from the nests and out of my hair.
You sigh while I shake my robe
mess your floor.
You wish for a woman of the modern world
one to dress up
in fancy gowns and fake eyelashes
I long for home
to wolfsong and Mothers arms
spider tales and choir of thunder.
My bare feet
wound;
you are bleeding.
***
Fallen.
Language of humans,
I do not understand tonight,
translate.
I sign:
carry me
I am tired and my body is numb.
This evening
I have danced barefoot on shattered glass
phone cord wrapped around my neck
you will not succeed to make me laugh
I have tears in one hand
the corpse of a grey kitten in the other
my head emptier than last years dove reeds.
Stumble on threshold.
Silent prayer for kisses
no reply.
Run home.
There for you to seek
taste my language.
Not long 'til you come.
So,
I ask,
whose smell is the stranger here?
You insist on belonging
with the Others
Liar, my spirit screams,
liar.
I wish you death
I wish you rebirth into Truth....
***
Remember you how we first met
how you found me dancing at the edge of the seas?
Long had you walked alone
long had you wished
me
her
someone.
As you lost all hope I appeared
descended from the skies
crowned by the soot wings
humming.
Tree whispers above your head
giggling flowers beneath your feet,
how touched you me not with surprise in crystal blue eyes
trembling hands and moistened lips,
how played we not in the gardens,
intoxicated by chastity,
bellies full of fresh fruit and sweet words.
You laid me down, on back!, but touched me not.
Did you not know, even then, that there had to come another
created for you of water and wind.
And remember you now not what happened
or not
in the later?
Many were the ways of frightening you
with all of my untamed being,
not what you had expected but real
of flesh and blood
of fire and soil.
Now you cry
you woe
and condemn.
I cannot put spells of silence on the whole of the World
for you to be heard.
Say me, tried I not, for you and for peace
to close my heart to red berries and leafs
forget the taste and sounds
of lips on lips and skin on skin?
Must you blame me now
while forgetting how I cried for your hands,
how I silenced my being to better suit yours?
I was so young, so yours and untouched by others,
the owners marks that now cover my back and shoulders
were yet not carved and would so have remained,
it was you
and no other who threw me out to
Elsewhere!
Closed I not my eyes when rushing past the mirrors
hoping for us both that the scars would fade into forgetting?
It did not happen.
No.
For he stormed on
struck me harder than famine and earthquakes
poured himself upon and into me.
Your hands
too seldom and too respectfully
placed on my body
still marks there
as from harshly pressed thumbs.
Other shoulder down over spine
and you fall into jealousy
following the pictures of the wild man with your eye.
Your eye
his claw
my skin
trinity?
Am I
as burning and as brilliant
as the flame that sparkles
his eye?
Never will I forget that day when I washed my hair in the river.
He bent over the water from the other side of the border
and we met as reflections in a mirror.
I lifted my head and the same water dripped on both.
He did not run.
Nor did he cover me with coolness or harsh words,
he remained seated studying me long.
Crow crown on his head, red berries and rain songs.
When he gave me his hand, when he said
Come
I did not hesitate.
The storm he brought tore the roof off
our wellmade home,
pulled the trees up by the roots,
blew through everything that was I
and threw it around so it landed both here and there.
The rest he offered, came morning, was a wind
gently bending the leaf tops
in July dawn.
Those were his ways.
He was the rain my soil drank after ages of drought.