Catastrophe

 

Collage by Margaret Bednar

(click on image to enlarge)

Catastrophe

Cerulean has softened

into a sapphire sky

as bridge between earth and moon

bows low.

Children cling with reverent hands

to ancestral spirits

while black cottonwoods' feathery catkins

tremble, their sacred roots dug deep

into riverbank's sides.

Crickets silence their song

and adults with trembling voice

question "Mortals or Gods?"

as Luna escorts her Imperial Majesties,

glass-faced and proud,

before Earth's indigenous,

crowned and uncrowned now equal,

one small step, repaid.

by Margaret Bednar, January 13, 2023

Playing along with "Shay's Word Garden - Word List - Alicia Suskin Ostriker". I used six of the 20 words: Catastrophe, Cerulean, Cottonwoods, Cricket, Feathery, Glassy (Glass)

Also linked with "Poets and Storytellers United - Friday Writings #59"

Native Americans revered the black cottonwood tree.  In some areas they are found along coastal river bottom lands.  The trees were considered symbols of the sun, the birthplace of the stars, or the bridge between earth and sky.  Its roots were used for carving kachina dolls, masks, and other ceremonial objects.    A kachina is an ancestral spirit  (there are more than 500) and they act as intermediaries between humans and the gods.  

Luna is latin for moon.

The images are of New Orleans Mardi Gras costumes!  If this is what I would see instead of a ton of drunks with bad beads and tits and ass - I would be there!  But I've heard too many horror stories.  Funny enough, my father-in-law loved it (God rest his soul).