184. ‘The Answer You Seek Is Not Here’
‘The Answer You Seek Is Not Here’
It was like every wound
I ever had opened up
inside my chest and I wanted to weep.
It was like seeing my home crumble
and losing my mother all over again.
Like someone I trusted shoved a knife
into my belly, and although my divinity
would not let me die, I felt as close to
death as I had ever been.
My voice was high and shaking
as I said to her, ‘Please, I have
travelled such a long way here.’
You must give me something.
The unspoken words suspended between us,
soft and pleading and desperate.
The crone simply smiled,
every wrinkle on her face creasing.
‘And that journey was not in vain,
child. Even in barren ground
there are flowers that find a way
to grow. But this is not the place
in which you will find what you seek.’