Pegasus

(inspired by the Sunday Scribblings' weekly prompt: Bio)

born on the tip
of New Jersey

only girl in a
house of boys --

(an elderly woman from Brooklyn
asked me once "was that a blessing
or a coise?")--

how did she know?

watered by words
from the Jordan Valley
and Nazareth

my father a flying
giant
with black academic
wings

delievering a Word
a disturbing mixture
of Freud and Jesus

in a British accent
laced with a tinge
of Empire
and Entitlement

my mother a
misplaced Southerner
always homesick
for the Simple
and the Real

blossoming on visits
Home
amidst southern-fried
chicken and okra
watermelon eaten
in a liturgical circle

outside among the lightning bugs
and cicadas 

cholesterol-soaked casseroles
and syrupy-sweet pecan pie
on Homecoming Sunday
on the edge of the cemetary

where I learned
who I was
a member of a vast
family forest

connected
loved because I occupied
a branch

words were my salvation
up North
amid the noise and confusion
rebellious brothers
shedding their Church Skins
with great drama

I wrote
I bathed my soul
in the nicotine-charred voice
of Neil Diamond

lost between Places
seeking my own "I Am"
in the lonely years
of high school

disillusioning years
among Fundamentalists
finding
losing
finding

in the Never Dull
Circle of Life
doing battle
binding wounds
wearing the Black Robe
like Dad's

delivering a Word
shaken
grounded
wounded

by that Word

of Life and Death

finally
coming home
to a place
I'd never been before

right in the Middle

finding Love
to settle me
and open me

my heart torn open
and healed
by a child

shedding the Robe
walking out
of the musty sanctuary
taking some of
the Old
and looking for

the New.