Encaustic, driftwood, collage, wire, 9.5” x 8” x 1”

Right now there’s an energy pushing you in a new direction

           By Julia Talen

back east, towards the rocky coast, the bitter parts

of the Atlantic ocean. There is a hanging door

at a fork in the road where you can meet a lover or

a death angel. The lover might tell you about the sunshine, 

or the acorns orbiting the beach. The death angel might tell you

of the of the skulls in the brush, the animals that once

held soft souls and waded in creek water. Either one

will reach out a hand, attempting to avoid the sharp snap

of a wax trap. One will say yellow. The other will say

wood. One will lose her finger. The other will lose her

tongue. They will both reach into the earth and pull out

fallen stars, secret bottles with messages, convincing you

to find the broken acorn or the shallow creek water. You will feel 

the centers of both run through 

your belly. Seed, ripple. Listen 

for the north star, the magnetic field. Remember 

the strangest parts of yourself and let them. Let them 

remember. Let them find the door.