SAMHAIN
©
Dame Niamh )O( Gealach
High Priestess, Sisters of the Burning
Branch
Sisters of the Silver Star, Circle of the Silver Hive
(reprinted
with permission)
I am a twist of black paper
Dancing in a wind-eddy.
Blown three
times round the gatepost,
Wrapped briefly round the lamppost
Hanging by wingtip from a branch
Plié
into a puddle on the pavement.
I am a shout that bells around the corner
Ricochets diminished from the bushes,
Whistles down a chimney,
Chuckles in the porch-eaves,
Murmurs blending into the wind.
I am a shape-changing shadow
I whisk along behind a loping cat,
I solidify in corners, melt in streetlights,
Flit across the round-faced moon,
Fingering the rime round the moon,
Whispering a rhyme round the moon.
I am a figment of the night's imagination,
A clown-face suspended in midair
To exorcise your ghosts,
To invite your dear departed to Dumb Supper,
To remember the sweet departed on this night,
And howl off hooting into the tunnel of night.
