A New Archetype

Become the eccentric older woman 

you’ve always been on the inside.

Wear outrageous clothes and live in a house

with colorful walls and magazines piled high,

art all over the place made by painters you knew

in your Parisian phase. 

Show the world your collection of animal bones

and tarot cards, get a couple more cats, 

a wolf pup you raise from birth, 

swim naked in the dark and glistening water. 

Let’s turn the page and leave everything known behind, 

create a new archetype, one they’ll tell their

children about, the one who didn’t have to compromise, 

the one who lived free 

and stayed alive 

and loved. 

(from my book, Quietly Wild)