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Initiation

Poetry by ​​Christine Stephens-Krieger
Once, I drowned.
    Once, I died for a minute
        in the arms of the octopus
            at the bottom of the lake. 
 
This memory, this moment,
    seared. I’m wearing
        blue and white gingham
            with white eyelet fringe.
 
My bangs are crooked.
    My cousins laugh, say,
        "Ma cut yer bangs, huh?"
            It’s a family reunion.
 
Once the world came into focus.
    Once, my body
        was a different place.
            Somewhere inside me,
 
that lake is still alive
    with the octopus,
        reaching long arms
            from the bottom. It was
 
real and not real, but real.
    All of it, I know.
        I recognize each piece
            like a dream of a place
 
I've never been before.
    Spirits dance on cave walls,
        tell tales, fly
            from their pits and run free.
 
Lungs full of water, I sink down
    into Death's sunless undertow.
        I know nothing of fear,
            my body never learned it,
 
spun to perfection,
    blood diamond held tight
        in the silent, endless grip
            of my new best friend.
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Christine Stephens-Krieger

Christine Stephens-Krieger is a poet, painter, educator, and shamanic practitioner who's published poems and essays in many journals, most recently YES Poetry, Bitchn' Kitch, Dime Show Review, and an anthology, The PrePress Awards Vol II: Emerging Michigan Writers. She finished her MFA from WMU, and her new book, What a World, What a World: A Life in Poems is currently seeking publication. She lives in Michigan with husband and cat.

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