“Hagiography of Machig Labdron”

My mother
took the form of a consort, she wore a necklace of skulls
She could be found on the Charnel grounds
Or in the houses of prostitutes

She was a sacred house
Her body contained scrolls,
she swallowed a note with the secret of everything
During the worst days, the days they bombed the nic unit
She swallowed the sacred nectar
From an elm tree
Which housed a family of spiders
She placed on her face

She was born in Gaza, Israel, Palestine, Darfur, Myanmar, Ukraine and Yemen
Her hair has not been combed
And contains oils from every flower in Syria

Her name is Machig Labdron
She is a midwife, who places a newborn baby in a basket
And sends the baby down the river

My mother is empty
Of form, she has no body, she is a boundless abode

Her head is full of snakes
She is an emanation of the Wisdom Dakini
She lives on the gym floor, under the basketball hoop
In a new shelter for Migrant mothers

She crossed the Rio Grande
Today with a coyote, a second cousin, and a pendant with Our Lady of Guadalope

I was born in a sea of milk
Which is to say–
Even when there is no sacred place
You must have a sacred hour
When you do not know what you are owed
But experience
And bring forth a creative incubation

The mother
Is empty of form
She is unable
To walk
In a body

She is remembering
That she did not die
And was transfered to Tibet
I transferred my citizenship after lifting a hooked knife
Into my mothers heart which I replaced with a pure white conch

I have a dream to tell you:
I entered a cave