I Realised I Was Air

I realised I was air today

After years of toying with fire

Getting fingers burned yet

Revelling in the pain

Believing I may be a green witch

A child of the earth

Because I could grow things

Back from almost nothing

Nurturing and coaxing straggling shoots

Back to life.

Then when the house nearly flooded

Over and over

I thought water was mad at me

For not taking notice

For not paying it enough attention

Or respect.

Standing in the kitchen

The door slightly open

So the cats could run in and out

As they pleased

The wind blew hard and sudden

Trees whipping wildly

And the grass transformed to waves

I felt it

Right down my spine

The thrill of the wind

And I remembered

Laughing on the edge of a cliff

Stormy nights and days made dark to match

Clouds scudding across the moon

Battering door frames and windows

And the slow, elegant breaths of meditation.

Suddenly the rain started

The green garden glinted gloriously

Like a great flat emerald

And the central heating roaring behind me

The fire in my heart and hearth

Of this modern age

And I became confused

With the heat, the soil, the dripping sky

But then the wind howled, triumphant

Clearing the cobwebs away

You are air, they say

Realise, you are air.

***

About the Author:

Mabh Savage is a Pagan author, poet and musician, as well as a freelance journalist.

She is the author of A Modern Celt: Seeking the Ancestors & Pagan Portals – Celtic Witchcraft: Modern Witchcraft Meets Celtic Ways.