PAD 4

My Triptych

Icon I

Lumbering she-beast
pulls herself onto the beach,
flippers heaving
carapaced weight through the sand.
No one can see the water borne grace.
This is where she labors,
burying for now,
protecting,
what the future will bring.

Icon II

The savanna is hers,
she of the coiled strength
and dangerous mouth.
Those jaws know the pleasure
of the crunch of bone
the chewiness of sinew,
the tension of a muscle,
holding,
before it is torn away.
There is no difference
between the hunter's roar
and the rolling purr
while licking the soft fur
of her pride.

Icon III

Beak, talon and wing,
she is stillness,
until silver kissed
wings slide silently through the night,
limp rabbit hanging from her claws.
The liquid note of her song
pierces the night.
Round eyes see
what the forest tries to hide.

The PAD 4 prompt was animal. For weeks now, I've had an image of a coat of arms lurking in my head. I even tried to sketch it out in one of my childish drawings. The creature for my shield had the body and head of a lion encased by the shell of a sea turtle, held aloft by the wings of an owl. These powerful female images simply would not leave me alone. I knew I had to do something with them, but it just didn't work. They weren't meant to meld, but each needed its place. When I read the prompt, I tried to make them come together, but I couldn't, and then I realized, that they are a trinity, three projections of one being. That brought religious imagery to my head, and I was reminded of a three paned, hinged Russian icon I once saw. That's how it came together. I didn't have a shield bearing my mythological images of power and self. I had an icon of the trinity within me.