Soul Tie.

She came in the hush between dreams
a woman shaped like earth and sky
dark-skinned, round-faced, wrapped in white
nappy hair like clouded crowns
and eyes like wells you don’t look into lightly

Her name was Medina
She did not glow, but she gleamed
the way old things do when they are holy
She sat, and the air obeyed
I don’t remember the words
but they spoke to my chains
and they let me go

When I woke, something had shifted
I was lighter
like guilt had been exhaled
and my name had been rewritten

Later that day
while the veil still shimmered
I heard her voice again
but this time she said a name
and said, go there

So I did
And what I heard was not thunder
but binding
not rope, but covenant
words that wrapped around my spirit
not to imprison
but to set me free

I bind myself to you
he said
and I receive and accept this bind
as long as it sets me free

And I wept
because mercy doesn’t knock
it floods

They will never know
that the one who spoke
wears Angel like a whisper in his name
that light found me
by way of a name I didn’t call
but that called me

This is what spiritual fathers do
they call you out of caves
they wake the Elisha in you
even if their voice must cross oceans
even if you never shake their hand

I am no longer under
I am no longer cursed
I am tide
and I am rising