Planetary Signatures

THE WEAVE:

…Vesta leaves a message

for Mercury, at the reception

desk, of the Library…

"Grandmother joined our Book Club.
She says, she has to take
pee-breaks, too- journaling

her own thoughts, helps her
synthesize what she is
learning.  She says, she is

out of her depth.  She read
the chapter, three times.
I told her, I listened to it thrice,

and I enjoyed the preface
more than chapter
One, because I had been

to many of the places named.
I could See my hand, touching
the symbol of the Knights

Templar, carved into a chapel
wall- or my feet, walking through
the mystical Carnac Stones.

She brings to mind
a memory, "of you Vesta, at 8 or 9,
sitting beside your cousin

as she read to you from a big
book of Greek mythology."
I look at the book, as she speaks

of it.  It is Now weathered, and Water
damaged, accompanied
by German fairy tales, Hindu myth,

Native American stories,
Gypsy folklore, and Japanese
horror.  She laughs, tickled

by the touchstone.  "I carried it
with me, on the bus to school,
everyDay," I flesh out the memory,

"which was annoying, because
it's huge."  "It was formative
for you," she reflects, and I say, "Yes."

"You are steeped in myth,
and so you are not out 
of your depth, and it is good

for me, to study like this,
with you.  I want my mind
to keep expanding."  I tell her

she is teaching me too.
She carries Grandfather with her,
and when she reflects, she often

quotes him, anecdotally.  She has
become two elders, rolled in One.
She speaks of loss, and pain,

and grace, without even mentioning
it.  We speak of the third
thread, woven between 

the book, the reader, and the Word
pouring out of them.  We speak
of how it is then woven again,

as a dialogue unfolds between
us.  Grandmother and I
have something ancient.

Next week, we'll tackle
chapter two and three.
She'd like to be done

with the history, so we can get
into the grail stories,
but I think we are already

questing after them."