Welcome to this place of ruin—

to the soulful arbour of drunkenness. Where we,

drunk to drunk, arrive, stirred with wild gaze, wholly

spent

and thoughts tangled in divine ecstasy

Welcome to the place of undressing, where we,

piece by piece, surrender our garments of consciousness,

of social duty,

where we let our hair and ourselves down

deep into the mudworld of instinctual womanhood.

Welcome to this place

and truth

only we know,

where here quietly guarded and gloriously filled with gems of beauty and

wild vines wreathing and running from our hearts and bodies

looming our images

the magical myths that feed us with breath and liveliness

and death enough to startle us.

Welcome to this place of sacrifice

Where, in our bodies, we contain the fire and where it lights and lifts our feet

Dancing, whirling, yearning, bearing

Where we give ourselves over, unafraid,

to knowing, to memory, to changing form, and making way

Welcome to the dwelling place

of the one who calls,

The one who comes,

unexpectedly

Welcome

Through the maze to the place

the seat of memory, of laughter

Welcome to where you belong.