Rules on Life from a Green Witch By Julene Tripp Weaver

Rules on Life from a Green Witch

I.

1. Find someone to instruct.
2. Prevention. Prevention. Prevention:
              2.a. Oat grass infusion;
              2.b. Springtime nettles, cooked like spinach;
              2.c. Lick the dew of dawn.
Appendix: Spoonfuls of organic earth while crawling through childhood.
3. Fermentation; like a God.
4. Remember, ancestors in the old country never visited doctors.
5. Write one sentence per day: ordain it a poem.
6. Yell when you feel like it, smile when you don’t; scream to release.
7. Expect surprises.
8. You are water, let your body have its own movement.
9. Your umbilical cord shifts earth mother to universe: rebirth is biological.
10. Breathe through your nose: in, out, in, out, calm slow; feel; will breath into each toe.
11. Your beliefs make who you become. A friend nurtures who you will become.
12. Silence is sacred.
13. A coven number for a perfect circle.
14. Accept what you want, even if you are not ready.
Disclaimer:  most everything in your life depends on where you are born, to whom and into what class or clan.

II.

She takes slow steps toward the street
you wait and give her your hand.
She says, Life is hard, so you have to love.
Wise, she says it again
holding tight to your arm
you walk her across the street, say, Thank you.

III.

Don’t wait till anyone dies to be your true self.

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Julene Tripp Weaver is a psychotherapist and writer in Seattle, WA. Her latest poetry book, truth be bold—Serenading Life & Death in the Age of AIDS, was a Finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards and won the Bisexual Book Award. Her work is online at The Seattle Review of Books, HIV Here & Now, Voices in the Wind, Antinarrative Journal, and Writing in a Woman's Voice, you can find more of her writing at www.julenetrippweaver.com.

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