Beautiful Belle

~for my daughter BJC on her 34^th birthday

Beautiful Belle of red blood and divine light

Battling strangulation in the womb

As the tangled intentions of nature and spirit grew

To emerge from darkness, life unbound —

Screaming your first exhale on a Friday afternoon.

Beautiful Belle of sea foam and fire

Entering through a door of complexity and tangled intentions –

Newborn child to a child of sixteen, the warlike forces

Of class and culture and mystery and possibility

Dancing in the air of your birth, at the foot of your crib.

Beautiful Belle of soft pulse and warm breath

Vibrant child of bruises and cuts and fearless

Determination to run toward the waiting world

Dragging your brother by the hand, always seeking

Another adventure of happy mischief and bubbling laughter.

Beautiful Belle of purple quartz and diamond hardness

Rebelling at every teaching, refusing every lesson,