In the Light (for Mama)
(Juma goes away for the night. Knowing I have the house to myself I head right home after work to party with you.)
At sunset, I get dressed up to drink and dance
in the living room, as we did so many times you and I
I light all the candles, arrange everything just so
change my earrings- the pink teardrops you gave me last summer,
put on more of the peony perfume you bought for my birthday
and my favorite ratty skirt, my private party skirt and
from the first sip of cold beer
it all comes streaming through me
and I play all the songs and dance so hard
my feet turning and sliding against the pattern of wool carpet
And I sing so loudly
And I laugh so wildly and
I cry,
I cry like a banshee
I cry in the high place of the song and the cry
becomes a chant and the chant becomes a body
of light and I am inside the light
I am the light, you are the light, all held by the cry, by the song, by the dancing, by the moment and I spin and spin into it because I am your daughter and you taught me how, because you gave me the space, because you opened the space, because you were the space
where this could be, where I could be, you let me be, you joined me,
we always knew how to party Mama, in the sacred sense of the word
and it is one place I can still open and feel you completely
in the body of light
is the body
you danced into being
is your beautiful full body, sashaying to the song
is your song and here, wild eyed and screaming
laughing and crying
light streaming from me
is your only daughter and she goes on and on…