Mapping Totem Animals on My Chakras Using AI and Pissing Everyone Off
So, it seems I’m either a Voltron of cultural appropriation, or a Karen sharing a world with mystics and animals of whom I should never speak.
You’re a woman of French-Canadian roots and a history of trauma under the Catholic Church. What should you invoke, a meat pie?
My friend, Terrence, says his spirit animal is a hamburger. One thing I’ve stolen is that joke.
Muladhara: Watersnake
You can blame it on the asshole uncle
who killed the Northern Watersnake
for no reason, snatching it by the tail
and whipping her head against a rock.
Kids shrieked and cleared the beach
where she thrashed and struck my towel.
Hot panic rose to my throat, nosedived,
exited my body as a flood of warm piss.
The snake musked to survive the attack.
Brown lacquer smeared across the sand -
odor so foul it unfroze me. I ran into water
to rinse, watching her instincts slacken.
Careful, my uncle told kids inching forward,
Fucker can still bite, even after it’s dead.
I dipped under for my terrible prayer.
Wicked man - we should live to spite him.
Now, she’s coiled at my root, unspooling
to glide through rivers dark with blood.
Submerged, safe, the skins she sheds
are mine. Whether you like it or not.
Svadhisthana: Honey Bee
My waggle-dance lands you in my fronds.
After, you stay in bed to read about Lenin.
I take a French shower, swipe lipstick and kohl,
head out for the primal sting of a stiff drink.
Foraging for sweetness, I’ll dance with anyone -
hothouse exotic, wildflower, houseplant, weed.
Sweat-slick, I’ll boogie ‘til an ungodly hour
then Uber home, shoulders dusted with gold.
Manipura: Horse
Designed for horizons and vaulted skies.
Canny of herd, predator, panorama.
Okay with saddle, even spur to the rib,
but will abruptly buck an asshole and bolt.
Anahata: Horseshoe Crab
Horseshoe crabs
survived the asteroid
that wiped out
the dinosaurs.
450 million years old,
more arachnid than crustacean,
their blue blood glows
under black light.
A quart of blood
sells for $15,000.
Used to test injectables
- vaccines and IV drugs -
their amebocytes
can identify bacteria
that would try
to kill us.
Once, at Thomas Point,
I came upon a washed up
combat helmet, American,
circa World War II.
Nope. Horseshoe crab.
Dressed in ancient armor,
she said it was time.
Protect the core.
Vishuddha: Skunk
Stop expecting the Virgin Mary
when you know damn well
I’m Pepé Le Pew.
Ajna: Hawk
A mind that is all logic
is a like a knife that is all blade.
Reading that quote invoked
Red-tailed and Broad-winged,
the Cooper’s that whistled over
ours heads to nab the baby chick.
Sahasrara: Great Blue Heron
Shut the fuck up.
Ferme la bouche.
Stop complaining.
Shush. Listen!
A still, small voice.
A song on the wind.
Wait, then.
Snatch it!
Great Blue Heron spears
Northern watersnake.
Heron eats her,
head first.
By tail, scales would
shred heron’s throat.
There’s the beginning,
and then, the end.
In the meantime,
a single plea.
Look around.