Mato Tipila
(“Bear Lodge” in Lakota)
last night trickling intricate filaments
of light-centred clusters
orbited Taurus’s shoulder
in a fluid milky-ultraviolet smouldering
like scattering starlight
seven neon-mercurial sisters
dance with four-hundred
luminous boys holding seven ears
of green corn from seven tilled fields
embodying seven tribes
tumbling sequential celestial bodies
unravel a pointing finger of fate
impossible to ignore
at the umbilicus of the universe
at the dwelling of thirteen serpents
seven bears hunt
the ethereal sisters
playing in a sunlit glade
seeking refuge under sacred rock
seven sisters sit on praying knees
veined clawed cracks spreading
from seven scratching bears
vigorously carving vertical
erupting rock formations
Coyote’s daughters take flight
ascend the sky tree
their lustrous light firing
up the white river aligning with Orion’s belt
where the Pleiades tribal spirits
dance on the leg of the Bull
Ruby McCann is a creative practitioner who holds degrees from Trinity Washington and University of Glasgow. She has published work in publications, You Don’t Look British, Anti-Heroin Chic, Gaelstrom-1 Magazine, Invisible Cities, Poetry Scotland, Journeys, Word Rhythms, and many others. She lives in Glasgow, Scotland next to the River Clyde. Nature and walking inspires her writing.
