Wedding Vow

I was the barefooted girl

mud-streaked

hair wreathed halo

of burdock and bramble

bird song and chipmunk chatter

playing over my

berry-sweet smacking tongue

I was the barefooted girl

spellcasting

woodland wild-crafting

clay-slick sorcery squelching

toes twined tight over tangled roots

blighted boughs knighted

by a leaf-litter crown

I was the barefooted girl

brewing

in a blaze of tiger lilies:

quaking whispers

of aspen ancestors

the wish burden

of wind-wandering seeds

guiding glow of goldenrod

jumping gem of jewel weed

silk seed husk-full

of monarch wing-beats

I am the barefooted girl

and you are the spells I've sown

in hidden places

where secrets sneak in canopies

where prayers play on the wind

You are the crossed rune's gift

the tree-tellers talked into their seeds

I am the barefooted girl

and gift for gift

I promise you this:

that I will honor the boundaries we set

for ourselves and each other

that I will scatter the pieces 

of the cycles we have broken

that I will wish your wishes and pray your prayers 

as I wish and pray my own

that I will guide you when you are lost 

and follow you when you are surefooted

that I will help you to heal 

in every way I know how

that together we will keep reaching 

for the sun

that I have loved you longer 

than can be known

that I love you better 

than can be said.