There comes a time when the white knight

For Deb

Climbs off his mighty warhorse with burnish’d hooves

Takes off his armor, his brazen greaves and feathered helmet too,

To sit beside a still lake and simply wait

To find happiness, and yes, infinite peace inside himself

Without having first to rescue and then possess a fair maiden in distress.

Look at him! In his soul all the waters of the earth

And simple human contentment intermingle and flow—this I know.

And there comes a time when the fair maiden looks at the white knight

And decides she can pick up her sword and, for herself, fight

Her silver jewelry she exchanges for a belt of gold

And she puts on also sandals woven from golden light

And in that moment she becomes the goddess Dawn

Caressing the crests of mountains with magenta and vermillion

And she becomes the archangel of the sun

Inventing songs that light has never sung.

There is no image in the mirror you need to fear

There is no cause so holy and right you must take a bite

There is no karma, no wisdom too; there is no you

Only a vast, open space of self-existent, luminous light

The genders first learn to fight

And then they separate in the dead of night

And then they reunite as pure light

Because though their souls their opposite intermingles and flows