On his bronzed warrior shoulders
He wore my heart and totems
Tattooed with my broken amulets
Whole as he remembered them
I had inflamed his craving, touch and taste
Liberating the church braids and tresses
Combed roughly by the wayward winds
Tangling, twining wanton with his senses
I bathed carefree in slipstream rivers
Wetting his parched partisan soul
Lit candles to goddesses
And gazed at the stars
With the fae I lay naked in tall silken grasses
I touched shy deer with gentle hands
Understanding their silent languages
And they stood trembling beside me as he did
These heinous crimes I died for
Accused of worshipping a pagan god
It destroyed his black spurned heart
To burn me
Naming me the witch I was
Many lifetimes of remorse and sorrow
He searches the earth for me
My hatred growing with resentment
As I returned to him in anguish
For many centuries past and present
In the Himalayas he glimpsed me
Gathering flowers for the Sherpa feast
And when he called with pleading heart
With stones I shunned and scorned him
In foreign eastern lands
I danced naked with armlets and veils
For the Baptist head I deceived him
Burdening his country with treason
And I was the queen who betrayed him
Causing great wars and mayhem
In a forest glen forgotten
A paupers grave stirs remembrance
Where he was buried and I was burnt
With my ashen spells and essence
Heavy heart with aching weariness
Amongst the flowers he lays his sword
Begging for a just forgiveness
Released was then our binding sadness
Healing our souls thus parted
And so it was that the gods ordained
To be freed from karmic paths of pain
Simone Inez Harriman
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/burning-goddesses/
