Arcana II

Arcana II: The Question of control

by Pey Pey Oh

Magic’s about taking that stuff of the universe,
Molding it like putty. Here I am again,
Free of self-sacrifice but not the pain
of balance, doomed to traverse the fine line;
With or without the blindfold, it still hurts.

The lady with the scales, she has to be
My dark sister, can you see our arms shake, tense
with the ache of responsibility,
The right angle of the lion’s jaw holds him still,
Twin shooting pains from wrist to elbow: I have the beast’s
Hot breath, his slippery tongue –
She, the cold weight of metal: knowing
How to thrust right-handed must upset
The level poise of her cool demeanour.

The sun shines upon our like endeavour,
I may be small but I’m strong,
Sometimes I don velvet gloves to disguise
My steely grip on the task at hand.
She puts on her pretty dress and tiara,
No one guesses at her ruthlessness.
Maybe we don’t need to advertise
The speed of our response,
Or our boundary’s star.

The answer to this question
Is a bound man hanging from a tree that’s the world.
His willingness astounds me.
I know if he stays there long enough
he’ll hear all the answers
whispered to him by that serpent
endlessly devouring itself.

The advice is simple:
Balance. Nurture. Be Yourself. Patience. Trust
the High Priestess.
She’s the poster girl on my wall,
the rightness
coalesced,
The woman with the book.

© Pey Pey Oh 2009

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Pey Pey Oh has been published in various small magazines along the way, like the ones universities publish, or Magma. Mainly she has a problem sending out things by snail mail, so if she can't hand it to you or send you an email, she's in trouble. She likes plants a lot, especially if they're aromatic, but she's really bad at watering them. Good thing it rains a lot in UK where she lives. She likes coming and hanging out with the Malaysian Poets once a year when she visits home, and loves to read at Readings. Plus, she also likes to go eating with the Food Bloggers, that's her other best activity which makes her feel more Malaysian. One of her ambitions is that she'd like to be "Awae wi' tha faeries" - and that's with a Scots accent - but mostly she's a lazy cat that needs a kicking by her friends to send out stuff. So, she thanks everyone.