All ready

I was born on an old volcano

Where the earth's molten crust rises in ridgelines made of quartz.

I walked the ridgeline as a child,

flying a serpent kite.

Growing up, some of the first words I spoke were “Me too”.

So my family named me “Me too”.

As if, pointing to a path.

In my 20s, I walked in a forest of glass,

in skyscrappers,

in a uniform of pinstripes.

But, there was something else.

I had seen more of this country than many, by the time I was 8.

Twenty five years later, I heard the call to a place at a time, again. It's April. We're at Uluru.

I sit with the senior Indigenous lore holder and ngangkari, traditional healer.

We both know who sent me.

"I will teach you, tjukurpa (culture)”, she says.

I already know how to dance it,

and what lays inside the elder’s look.

There is a reason I grew up with a men's initiation site to the setting sun and now the sun rises on a women's initiation site.

It's in the stars.

There is a reason I am at home in her country in the desert,

I am alive in her grandmother’s country in the Kimberley

and

 I sleep soundly on old volcanos.

As I touch the emotion in me

And lay my body down to rest,

I know how much I have given

And how much I receive.

I know the spirit in my body,

on the friction of the earth,

brings up ridgelines made of quartz.

And that I am,

all ready,

done.

--- Firekeeper