[After Sabina Lampadius]

As a symbol
of life and death,
I, Nerthus,
Earth Mother,
bear the
cycle in a seed until
the plant
decays home.
I dwell
in island birch trees,
sacred grove.
My carriage
veiled
with a woolen
vestment
touched by one
priest.
I am
land, ocean,
roots,
virgin forests,
lakes, and
ancient bones.

[Cindy Rinne is an experimental storyteller and record-keeper of many cultures. Cindy creates art and writes in San Bernardino, CA. She is an author with Michael Thomas Cooper of Speaking Through Sediment (forthcoming). Cindy is a founding member of PoetrIE. Her work appeared or is forthcoming in The MOON Magazine, Dual Coast Magazine, Artemis Journal, Meat for Tea: The Valley Review, Pirene’s Fountain, The Poetry Bus (Ireland), The Wayfarer, Extinguished, Extinct Anthology by Twelve Winters Press, The Lake (England), Revolution House, Soundings Review, The Gap Toothed Madness, Poetry Quarterly, The Prose-Poem Project, and others. ]