Marrying God - Rebecca del Rio

[Larry Robinson]

Marrying God

Dark of the moon making
Ritual my own, stone altar
My fire, low and quieted
The incessant tide insists
I hear its rhythmic chant
Above the scratching sound
My own voice attempts
To remember words that 
Call forth a Power, protection.
I am asking for answers
Requesting questions. 
Ritual to heal the hearts
I have broken—my own,
My daughter's, her fathers. 
Is it right this joy surrounding
The molten center of grief?
As I sing, resurrecting hymns
Of a childhood of certainty
A God of consequence and presence,
Another presence presents, 
A shadow rushes past, so close
I feel its wake. This obscure shade
Mine? His rage? A stranger
Come to make the beach
A bed for the night?
My fire doused, I climb the cliff,
Feel foolish, but certain
Rituals of my own always
Leave me chagrined, find me
Later rewarded. Weeks later
Full sun, I return, armed
With incense and photos—my 
Father, his father, hoping to find
A balm, a cure for this crack
In my soul's center, wound inflicted
By life that makes men
Other, condemns us to struggle. 
Moonless night, firelight
Now passed. Atop ashes a ring
Wedding ring. Mine now
I wed an uncertain god, 
One who promises nothing
Gives all. With this ring
Relic of another's broken
Heart, released to the ocean
Returned to the shore,
I thee wed. 

	- Rebecca del Rio