Image credit: Sergey Nivens/Shutterstock.com

Do I dare disturb this place?
Enter the door forbidden
By my ancestors
Yet open here before me
Entreating my safe entry
To the world beyond?

I have practiced carefully
Learned the texts and rituals
Prepared as a novice to adept
So surely this must be
A true revelation and not yet
A chimera sent to tempt
And draw me back, away?

My teachers may admonish
Me for pride and they may well be right
And yet this door before me
Speaks of secrets from some greater night
A place to cross over
Whole and inviolate
And in doing so in life
Cheating death
And its dark parade

What bargain must be made
To cross the threshold
Seek the counsel of the dweller there?
And would he speak of truth or lie
Bid me to eternal life
Or just to die?
I will not know
Until I try
Until I try…

(c ) Helen Valentina 2018