A woman at fifty

“In the very beginning, there were no people on the earth, but there was one woman.” A Bushmen saying.

A Woman at Fifty

I see you
a full moon rising
in the red desert

I see you in owl flight
own flight
I see a great moon rising
over the sand

I hear a drum
beating your rhythm
a crone voice in the dark
singing
This is life after earthlife
homelife, children

Your altar
I see the ruby wine, the bread
Have you ever listened
beneath the voices?
Can you see the white candle
breaking open the black cave?

I see a light-limbed dancer
hands throwing fire ash into the night
It is time to make love to a place within
small pleasures with no price.

I see an even-handed drummer
stepping through the fire in beat to your night poem
bringing your hidden self to the dance
so you fly in your own body

through an underground river
the blood courses
held once only in love-fevered veins
now in night flight, star flight

I see a woman in her own time
crone and owl
in her own fantastic history
I see you

And when you are
far away
when I look for you
I will find you - feet in Kalahari sand
and an audience of hands applauding

Christina Coates