when one slips from girlhood into womanhood
it is a mystery, an ancient rite unspoken but acknowledged
in your heart there is a higher call, a larger purpose
a twice-infinite horizon
there is all the time in the world
yet not enough in a moment
inside you are yearning, stretching
delving new caverns into the matrix of your being
finding new rooms into which to expand
there in the center is the molten ruby heart
bubbling and roiling with the joy and ache
of being a woman
so it has been since eve’s first daughter slipped the coils of childhood
so it was for me, and my mother, and her mothers ad infinitum
and so one day it will be too for you
dear daughter yet a-twinkle in the eyes of my heart
i am still learning the beautiful breaking and the grave joy
intrinsic to being a woman and who the woman is i am becoming
i await your longed-for unveilings
