Ocean's Breath Plateau ⩸ ukigiyummiktuk ⩸

THE FOURTH SONG

no posting order <3

we do not ask if boys are ready to become men.

caribou, running. elk, running. wolves, running. the cry of loons over still lakes.

they do not ask us when girls are ready to become women.

kukutux, wheeling in grief, whittled to sinew and bone and sorrow, keening, keening beneath dried-blood, shoving all broken pieces of motherheart toward the skies above

they trust us to know.

crying; the fire of a shriek in belly and heart and mind and soul; "let yourself release this pain, ariadne."

tonight, no singing, only the nightbound lamentations of a mother robbed, of children who tasted loss first;

the second crying was no easier;

she wept until eyes dried into sand-sting; sobs weakening only as dawn touched the face of the sea with soft gold.