New Painting

Paint over me -
color me in reds and gold-
until I no longer exist
as woman,

crawling on my knees
for a hundred miles
through the desert repenting.*

Cover me, but leave
an ear or the eyes-
and my beautiful hands
to see and hear and touch-

reaching through collage of
past lives and cursed body -
to become essence alive.


*A tribute Mary Oliver's poem "Wild Geese"