Finding Freya
She was there all along,
lying half cut under the bushes
broken beer bottle at her head,
damp and dishevelled.
She'd partied hard that night.
The boys had come
with their leather jackets
and home brew
to watch the sun set
and sit between
the Hornbeam trees
getting wrecked.
Freya rocked up
with her girl gang.
She wanted some
of what they had
in their nut brown
bottles.
Golden elixir of life
lighting her fire,
she started to dance,
a snake skin
dance that only
she had the balls
to do in front
of men.
They fell silent,
their dark eyes
moonstruck
on her twisting
hips and thighs.
Her jewelry flashing
hypnotic rings of labradorite,
ruby, gold and tigers eye.
Someone started drumming;
the beat grew faster,
as Thor's breath
swayed the upper branches
of the trees
where the Horned God lived.
Faster and faster
she spun,
they were cheering her now.
The wolf warrior had the longest,
hardest whistle of them all.
He wanted her so badly;
would she chose him?
He pressed the amulet in
his jacket pocket so hard
his finger bled.
Sensing his pain
Freya stood astride
him as he sat back
against the bark.
Crookeying down she
pulled his bloody finger
and smeared it
on her forehead
You're mine now
for this one night.
All mine.
The others drifted
off into the bushes
laughing, beer sodden
and blazing.
They were alone
between the Hornbeams
the moon casting
cold beams
on their white-hot flesh.
The Otherworld came
through quickly
as they crossed
the rainbow bridge
at that crucial moment.
Thirteen minutes turned into
thirteen hours
turned into thirteen years.
Her body still bore
the lightning scars
of his touch
that seered right down
her bone left side.
The oaks grew up around her.
She couldn't move,
the home brew
was paralysingly good.
She dreamed the same
dream every night:
the broken glass bottles
the same beating drum
the same snake skin shedding,
Thor's breath kissing her back,
the lightning strike.
Boom.
She was there all along.
I found her,
prostrate on her back
in the bushes,
legs still parted.
I cut away the rotten
wood, tidied her up
and gave her a good wash
of well water
that the Norns had left
in the roots of the Hornbeam.
She's drying out now,
in the boot
of my white tiger tank.
One almighty hangover
to surface from.
So much life left to live.
She's going to have
fresh jewels
and has stolen
his leather jacket.
He's long gone now,
that wolf warrior.
and she's wearing a new skin,
the girl gang have her back
this time.
Freya will outlive them all.
SCM2018
August