Haltia , a Baltic goddess, is known for holding a house together. Her devotees greet her whenever they cross the sill. Considered the domestic benevolent glue, when one moves away, it is necessary to carry a pocket of hearth ashes for the new home.
Haltia,
I’ve got my eye on you, even as I climb from rumbled bed covers, I meant to
make up with neat corners, tribute to your nimble fingers removing pebbles from
my path. I meant to fluff the pillows,
smooth the duvet. I meant to wash the dishes and wipe the counters because I
know how you love to vex chaos, how you bring hearts to hum beside the
calico. I meant to splash three drops of
lemon and clove into the diffuser, invite a hint of your fidelity along my
shoulder. Instead, I rolled some floral essentials across a wrist and imagined
meadows. I am testing your sublime
spirit, seeking blessings without alms. I am baiting you to shadow me under the
hickory beams, help you understand how they miss their canopy – the whispers of
nostalgia for wind along the catkins. I
meant to introduce you to the scarlet tanager nesting in the hackberry, the
funnel of swallows, and of course, the triplet song of towhees in the hedgerows
between houses. I meant to lure you beyond the green door into my favorite room,
where we could swing hip to hip in a wide hammock, swatting gnats, forgetting to
stir the soup and sweep the floor. I hoped you might prefer a moment askew,
tracing paths of earwigs and earthworms in the duff to that of minding the
cinnamon cakes so they don’t burn. Once you caught a drift of tall grass prairie,
the velvet in a wetland breeze, you could put aside your deific duties and step
outside with me.
Haltia,
we ask too much. Our first home has no
walls and every window, a skin of ochre, blue and green, easy on divinity, another
piece of place. Let’s press foreheads together, kiss nipples, so the rising sap
will bring us to temple. Let our blessings gush from benevolence not of your making,
but out of the surprises of our consilience. I have scattered the home ashes to
settle among the sedum. Here sits the hearth where all is well with the world,
all is well.
Comments