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