To Roberta Bonder in Space

Sally Ride! (Ride Sally!)

the first (and only?)

person to laugh in space:

it was her own joke and her ‘team’ missed it;

but I got it with no satellite receiver.

What glee when two women alone

shall brave the unknown together.

Ship-to-shore, long distance,

I laughed too!

Roberta Bonder,

you were wise to ask the men

to do a larger share of ship-work

so you could gaze out the window

(nice feminine impulse.)

You don’t know My name to call,

so you can’t see Me.

You think I’m a phantom

of light and shadow,

your eyes playing tricks.

Astarte would startle you.

Journeying Woman!

Crescent Archetype

of courage and power,

choosing the unknown,

risking yourself!

Remember I, Inanna,

Queen of Light,

had to be stripped

of all My symbols of power

to enter the gates of dark.

I had to die a little.

At the time, it seemed a lot.

I had to rot to grow.

You are nowhere,

locked in a prison of folly and pride.

You are a cog in men’s machine, a token.

Really risk yourself: for the first time,

risk their displeasure.

Journey in the deep space within. 

See the earth whole and sacred.

Reclaim the vision you could have had

on earth in a room of your own.

See your woman-power inextricable

from the harmonious, sticky web of all.

Let your weightlessness

remind you of Grandmother Spider,

Thought-Woman, spinning creation

out of the nothingness of Herself.

Is your weightlessness deep enough

to please black Winged Isis

with Her twin scales?

She is always searching

for lightness!

I weigh each soul against a feather,

from wings that I Myself designed.

I weigh each soul against a feather.

Lightness is what I hope to find.

I say all courage is My treasure.

(Delight your soul, and rest your mind.)

I say I love all acts of pleasure.

Lightness is what I hope to find!

Consternation in the Satellite: 

She’s space-blind, moon-struck! 

We’ve got a lunatic on our hands! 

I told you women are too

flighty for space, hysterical!

Drug her! Get a straight-jacket!

She’s she-sick! Bond her!

Restrain her. Re-train her.

Re-program her! Quick,

before she can tell us

where she’s been,

what she’s seen!

© Tamara Rasmussen 2018