Friday, the 13th, I am here to say*

Friday the 13th

I don´t have a poem for you-
I have an announcement

Friday the thirteenth is a sacred
not a dangerous day.

The rumor of this day´s curse reverses
once again what´s sacred and profane,
one more way that women in this wayward age
are fucked. And it´s not just women out of luck.
also the body you live, in the soil
which succors you, the water which washes
you, the earth cradling your feet.

Regarding Friday the thirteenth, I´m here to say
there´s nothing to fear, do not be afraid.
Do not capitulate to complicity in the
conspiracy of fear fomented by some
shriveled 16th century Christian monks

who devised the idea to name this day
bad luck, campaigning to tame the lusty
country folk and terminate their traditions
honoring the land ("Pagans" the Christians
called them, meaning "peasants," and "civilians" -
not soldiers in the wars of Christ.)

Friday is and was Freya´s day, the Sabbath day,
the day to honor Freya, Earth´s daughter,
Venus of the north, she who feeds us from
the bounty of Her fertile fields, who
warms the hearth, heats our passion,
heartens our home, who blesses our newborn,
makes our babies hale, guides our spinning hand,
heals us with Her seeds and herbs.

Thirteen is Freya´s sacred number-
the number of mooncycles to the year,
the count of times each year a woman bleeds.

Thirteen cannot be conquered, divided,
not compromised. It´s wild, eccentric,
erratic, ecstatic, beyond the tyrant´s
reach, past captivity, a jumping off
place, the threshold from which we tip
over into other worlds. Thirteen is the
triple goddess-maiden, mother, crone-
standing upon the pinnacle often the
power of transformation.

On Friday the 13th, I´m here to say
Do not be afraid. Do not give way
to fearing, or degrading-

woman, moon, body, birth, bleeding, earth.

When you cast us into darkness,
you empower us to haunt you.

*taken from:www.honoringyourbelly.com

*