Letter to my Enlightened Self by Lauren Valle

 To My Enlightened Self

 Silent self, self made of stone

Self that witnessed the birth of the ocean and

bathed in the torrents of mucus and blood

Self that melts the boundaries between her own beauty 

and the beauty of the world

All boundaries and no boundaries

Dissolved and made

Woman-self!

Woman whose heart is big enough to hold the whole world

Woman whose heart is made of medicine

Weaver, space-holder, protector of life

Uttering ancient songs and waving her arms in bliss

and communication and communion

Quiet woman resting in the woods

Hair tangled into the roots of a tree

Toenails transforming into bark

Wrists bent into branches

Tears of sap and breasts of burls gnarled onto the trunk

Adorned woman

Empty woman