Divinatory

by Rose Lemberg

Hold four stones: a divination in an uncaring world.
the earth speaks through stones: the foundation
of all that is and all that would be,
underfoot, invisible, wounded and yet wise,
growing each stone into a mountain.

Hold a reversed avalanche: a divination in a world of loss.
The earth continues to speak, undoing the wounds
of a drought-parched garden, unpulled weed,
and a dried seedpod—a quickening
of hope in this most desolate ground; stubbornly reborn.

Hold a moon in your hand: a lantern, a door
once more, into this Work that endlessly awaits me
and is being endlessly done: a walk through the darkening wood
in which the earth is my mentor,
my guardian, my long-lost sister, myself,
torn out of the womb and discarded, stubbornly reborn,
falling seedlike underfoot—and I follow.

*

Rose Lemberg is a queer, bigender immigrant from Eastern Europe and Israel. Their fiction and poetry have appeared in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Lightspeed’s Queers Destroy Science Fiction, Uncanny, Apex, Strange Horizons, and many other venues. Rose’s work has been a finalist for the Nebula, Crawford, Elgin, Rhysling, and other awards. You can find more of their work on their Patreon: http://patreon.com/roselemberg,where “Divinatory” first appeared.