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Prayer For Remembering The Blackbird by Rose Flint

Taken from Nekyia published by Stride

And sometimes all I can do
is skate over my own surface
    reflections frozen in ice

And sometimes my bones are runes
scattered in ocean's merciless tide
    and I am deciphered by water
                              Sometimes
I fly so fast through the midnight forest
that my hair writes fine silver prayer flags
in the snatching hawthorns
                         and I am naked. So naked.

And there are times when all I see is grey
and I have no memory of pearl or oyster. Then
                     only the mist will speak to me

Sometimes there is no running in me
    there is no singing in me
    there is no loving in me
               and I am less than a leaf
    less than a leaf's winter lace
    so close am I to frost's roaring
                 and sucking, frost's cold mouth opening.

And in these times, I must lie so;
let Time enfold me
into the journey.

      Only,      let me trust then
to Blackbird                waking the Sun.

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