Dance of the Painted Maidens

I

After she had set sail after she had set sail / After the mother-of-the-earth had set sail // After the earth-mother on her homeward journey, // The fires at the rear of her the fires of the end / The flaming rainbow behind her like a wolf she devours; // Like a manatee strikes down the waters of the beginning // The going the gone-waters the back-swirling eddies / The waves in battle ahead of her in the attacking storm ...

II

And they came to us after she had set sail / bringing to us the secret; / And they came bringing to us the secret on / broken clay tablet cooled ... // From the seven quarters of the globe, / Past the seven seas past the seven // Distant deserts, bearing beads of coral and / kolanuts fit for a queen, / They came bringing to us the secret by Man- / of-Giant-Testicles coded ... // The gatekeepers at the seven gates heard them, / trembled at their approach; / The onlookers marvelled at their standards, / and at their plumed helmets ... // And they surged round about us and round / about the clearing, / Round about us like a fence of thorns raised / against the onlookers ...

III

For it is you, shower of rain after drought, that we have waited / Menses after menses, without antimony without bracelets; while you swam / Diver of centuries, your longest journey, the sea of ten thousand leagues ... / And in your honour, Princess-out-of-exile, the tamarinds spread their velvet coverlets, / And our cymbals our calabashes comb the night for the alligator hidden in the rushes. / In reverence to your shores, O abyss of wonders, our fingers / Tremble above the altar, and the incense smokes in the censer; / And eyes of us that have looked on oceans tremble before your lagoon ...

IV

For you return to us / From a forgotten farewell / From the settled abyss / Where the twilights cross // Several seasons ago / We brought you camwood / Votaries of an ideal / Without age or name // We fed like prayers / Into your memory / Vegetable offerings / Eggs of white hens // Yesterday was Remembrance / Day at the Cathedral / We called you to witness / Involved you in our vows // We did not know you / Who were whom we hold / For to know you was / To know the infinite // Today on your homecoming / Patient mother / With you in our palm / The life hour is our cup // The secret the clay / All the world’s farewells / Break behind us / Like wavelash on sandbank.