An Unmoving Wind

I sit, transfixed    
Unmoving    
Unwanting    
All stillness gathers around me
And before Mara, the earth bares witness for me too    
   
I
Am
Here    
   
She roars her curses and makes her face the blinding sun    
Beating down upon me and evaporating the water in my veins    
I crack and break
But still,    
through shattered, chapping lips I say    
   
I
Am
Here    
   
The Bohdi tree offers me shade    
And Mara grinds her teeth    
Wild-eyed she flays herself of skin    
so that her breasts are mangled    
Bleeding
And she glares at me, threatening    
Raising her scourge, she swings
And I whisper placcidly    
   
I    
Am
Here    
   
The leather hears and unbinds itself
Her weapon comes undone    
Rabid,
Spitting venomous reproaches    
She condemns me for my sins    
And demands her judges execute    
a thousand arrow volley arches toward my place    
Deep breath    
And without words    
I say    
   
I
Am    
Here    
   
The arrows honor their parents    
By becoming the blossoms and colorful leaves    
of the trees from which they were cut    
And fall at my folded feet    
Lotus seated I recieve in deep respect    
Their honor
And we exchange a delightful greeting    
Mara tears her eyes out so she will not have to see    
The earth itself reiterating for me    
   
I
Am
Here    
   
Madness gripped
Bleeding, spitting, eyeless
Beating at the frustrated heart within her chest    
Mara implores:    
"What God of Beast and Soil are you?    
What poisoned dagger must I draw?"    
To which I raise my head and smile    
Beaming love from under flesh    
   
"No God," I say,    
"But, within, something more.
A complex question with a perfect answer.    
Something greater, which even worship cannot defile.    
...    
I    
Am
Here."    
   
Mara screams and tears her hair out by the handfuls    
as she cooks in her own heat
Burning in the fire for which she intended me    
   
Eons passed    
My body died and was interred    
Mara came to gloat
But as she strode she felt the wind    
And a whisper in her ear    
A familiar voice from long ago that said    
   
I
Am
   
Still...    
   
Here.