Mawu

On the day the world was made

Mawu the Creator

rode in the mouth of Her elder sister,

Aido Wedo, primal dragon,

grandmother of time

who had always been.

But when it was made

the Creator was troubled

that the world was too fragile:

eggshell, bubble, dream.

Mawu asked Her dragon sister

to enter the earth to support it.

Aido Wedo in Her love for all creation

chose to earth Her power,

Her sleeping curves blanketed by hills.

Mawu placed a spark

of the divine Sekpoli

at the heart of each part of creation,

in the hope that the parts

would live in harmony together

as members of one

sacred body and soul.

Then Mawu as Yemaya

curled up contentedly,

fertile sea of fullness,

in the deep lap of Aido Wedo,

amid the sheltering

curves of Her mountains,

fed by Her serpentine rivers. 

Oshun dawned,

aura of creation,

crescent edge of hope. (Dahomey myth)

© Tamara Rasmussen 2018