I withdrew my foot as if it had been a complaint,

and we took off again.

Perhaps the future was where we needed to be

not the past, with its howling stones,

with it fierce seers, with its knowledge.

—Jane Yolen

Second Coming

God is an alien

of the female kind:

birthing sons,

delivering them from evil.

We should know her

by her signs:

the cross of arms,

the open legs.

She:

maid, mother, crone.

Is three.

God is an alien

of the female kind:

forgiving but only

at a cost.

Nothing is lost

that she cannot find.

Nothing is given

that she does not first get.

She:

egg, larva, moth.

Is three.

God is an alien

of the female kind:

do not seek to know her,

to know about her.

She initiates contact,

breaks it off,

then wonders why

you do not call again.

She:

wife, lover, whore.

Is three.

God is an alien

of the female kind.

Stare at her,

you will go blind,

Mess with her,

you will go mad.

Contradict,

you will be gone.

—Jane Yolen

The Human Guest