Amazons

I have loved     women
who stared into the jaws of death
      & yawned    unimpressed
I have loved     gentle women
      fierce women     furious women
I have loved     women
      with teeth
women who named themselves after birds
women burnt at the stake who forbade me
      from burning
women who leapt from wavecut shelfs 
      & shattered against basalt
I have loved     women who buried me
      broke me       tore me to pieces
& women     who pieced me together
I have loved      troll-slayers      oracles      
      warrior queens   
women who fought whole armies alone 
women with iron spines
      & eyes like sea-glass     shifting
I have loved     madwomen
      sad women     Madonnas and whores
women     who filled me with sunlight
      & breathed life into me
I have loved     women
& been loved     by women
til death
      & after