113. The Beginning and the End
The Beginning and the End
It was the cave that we visited first.
Our sanctuary where everything had begun.
The place where my eels swam.
Where Asteria’s glowworms shone.
Where I had made crabs and we
had made starfish together. Everything breathed
here inside the dark and luminous light.
Tenderly, I raised my eels in small
saltwater circles in my hands and took them to
the wide waters of the sea to set them free.
Asteria gently filled her hands with
the glowworms that shone, and said a prayer
allowing them to breathe easy in the wide seas.
There was ritual here. In releasing all we loved
into the oceans: the starfish, the eels,
the crabs, and the glowworms. We knew
before we had finished, this was the end
of everything we had known as
our favourite hiding place and sanctuary.
Everything we had known of our girlhood.