Mono Duality

Poem - by Gerri Leen

You had no idea of

The multitudes I carry

Within this body you

Once professed yourself

Willing to die to possess

We married in your palace

I didn't show you my true self

Because you seemed to love

Me as I appeared not for what

I might hold inside

So many want to be loved for what's inside

I begged the universe to keep you shallow

It was the court magician who

First exposed me, sending a spell

Of snakes and fire, which I repelled

Without a thought—for I'd been well trained

Hands up—all four of them, changing color

As I called on power far older than your kingdom

Ready to repel flame with flame

Your pitiful serpents with cobras

I saw love die in your eyes that day

Was it my four hands or the skirt of skulls?

But I'm more than just this and

Your magician begged you to let him

Test me more—I was your queen

Couldn't you have told him no?

You sat immobile, unbelieving as

He sang a song of the old times

The first peoples, and the bones of

Crow fell around me and Wolf

Jumped to my shoulders and howled

As my flames soared, your expression went from

Fear to calculating—how could such power be used?

Used? One such as you does not use me

I called forth the feathers of a dove symbolizing

My love for you, and set them alight

The golden jewelry you gave me

I transformed to copper

Pulling the sun into the orange metal

Pulling the moon into the wolf

Using their dual power to set my cobras

Free, multiplying as they hit the ground,

One, then ten, then one hundred all

Shooting flame as well as venom

There was no one left when they finished

They don't call me destruction for nothing

Flames licked at the linens on the table

At the curtains covering the windows

And you groaned and called my name

Or at least the name I'd given you

You begged me to heal you

And I could have—I carry multitudes

Of aspects inside me, including kind ones

But you'd had a kind one

And that wasn't enough for you

I leaned down to kiss you as gently as I could

My ancient lips on your seared and puffed ones

And then, without a word, I walked away