We meet in many places

the musty woods beneath swaying mossy boughs

a paint-splattered studio apartment downtown

your neighbor’s house, perhaps

 

Chattering and excited like children

we greet each other

hugs with running starts

all beaming eyes and glinting, peevish smiles

 

There is a silence

then

we begin

to cast the circle

to draw a cloak

a space between the worlds

 

We honor what binds us to all things

and conspire with the air that swells to lift up

a song that is strange and true

to ignite the fire dancing in the sky

that warms the ocean of the waking dream

 

We retrieve the gifts that glitter on the twilight shore

And in so doing turn the wheel of time

 

That is all, really