BY JAN HAAG
ETRUSCAN GODDESS
for Wendy Kirchoff
O Devayani, there's an Etruscan Goddess living
next door, the next cell over in life,
tall, elegant, with a bandaged knee.
She posseses pictures from outer space,
and processes momentary views
of her inner life.
Long hair, long legs, she hikes
in the North Cascades.
Imagine her, O Devayani, leaping up the paths,
hurtling from rock to rock,
coasting down the inclines,
flying over the very tops of the peaks,
long hair streaming,
shrieking with joy.
Rosy are her cheeks, huge are her eyes,
like pools, secret and brown,
in the heart of deciduous forests
that return, via meadowland,
to giant evergreens, living
through time, elusive as
the Etruscans, buried in their vaults,
revealing their knowledge
slowly
to high-tech archeologists,
grudgingly, fact by fact
over eons, infinite study,
eventually exposing the power
of the Etruscan Goddess.
O Devayani, study her ways,
discover the sources of joy,
rise from the riparian soil
become meadow, forest,
mountain, sky, fly across
the ice cold glaciers, fly.
Copyright © 2000 Jan Haag
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Jan Haag may be reached via e-mail: jhaag@u.washington.edu
Gifts
India
Lung-gom-pas
Nothing
BY JAN HAAG