wolves have come in a pack
leading them is Guadalupe
her shimmering rays a full body halo
as if Hildegard had drawn flaming petals around her
strains of mediaeval music mingle with Nahuatl
it’s uncanny but like the halo it works
with full pageantry comes Virginia Woolf
dressed in an Ethiopian jalaba
instead of standing to attention
she reclines in a wicker chair smoking
declaiming the end of war
Christa Wolf bursts in bringing with her a trainload of workers
who carry banners with the word
proletariat written in red
Anna Wulf too has a banner
Workers of the World Unite
but it’s torn and dragging along the ground
increasingly shredded with each step
Anna Wulf is carrying a book
shining as brightly as Guadalupe’s halo
Guadalupe has her arm around quotidian Mary
they have begun to howl not worrying
that the moon is not in the right phase
it’ll come says the second Mary
when we reach BE
elemental quintessential
that is what matters
in the distance a song
everyone turns the hags the fairies
the eldest ones all talk stops
they stand listen to this song at the edge of hearing
a very old woman joins the party
her bearing perfectly straight
feet as light as a bird
dust gusts rise turn spiral whisper away
build become willy-willies flirting with the land
air carries the song
the winds become women dancing
and then another
La Donna Lupa Paleolitica
wolf woman
at 300 000 years she deserves respect
she says I’m tired of museum life
I want to return to the slow stream
rock time planet time
Vassar’s young women crowd the wolves
a Marxist lesbian party gathers
around Christa and Anna
but Anna is leaving with her shining book
she’s asking Virginia about form
the form itself
how to break through these limitations
Christa is leaving her party too
wanders over to where Medea is fixing
a wing on her serpented flying chariot
she always was competent
Anna slopes back to Guadalupe they are shouting
not in anger so much as excitement
you have to descend first says Guadalupe
I’ll wait for you
a visionary can’t avoid her visions no matter the horror Virginia is nodding wishes she’d had
Guadalupe to hold her hand
at the time of her descents
Lupa and Medea are talking in the corner
the word ‘sons’ is overheard by Curatrix
why I don’t I teach them to speak Angelic?
there’s a noise at the gate voices of a different timbre
a group of men is shouting their weapons visible
Diana Hippolyta Minerva and a crush of Amazons
bar their way they bear no arms
but there’s that no-nonsense stance
then the martyrs step forward
you don’t scare us any more
put down your weapons
the burly ones are like puppies and do as they are told
a group of suits are betting on the outcome
money is changing hands too quickly
to see what currency they are using
Agnese is speechifying
you have work to do
and it won’t be done
by standing there calling us names
telling us you’ve been hurt
see my scars she raises her shirt
shows the burn marks
points to the scar across her throat
if you want to know hurt
look at every woman here
the bravest and the oldest
both rich and poor bear scars
go on one of Anna Wulf’s descents
if you must
but right now you have to leave
and work on those money changers
the temples have become banks
the banks temples
it’s your turn to fix it
she turns and walks away
the men stand dumbfounded
some are angry say they should rape us
teach us a thing or two all over again
but a few de-escalate
Barbara reminds the weaponed ones
she’s their saint the one in charge of explosives
she suggests to the mathematicians at the back
that they owe her too and perhaps they could get started
on convincing the chargers of interest
the forgers of currencies
that money is as abstract as calculus
as indefinable as an imaginary number
and more irrational
you can’t take it with you
they break off into groups
begin to talk
they’ve a bit of ground to cover
so let’s leave them at their own party
they can send us an emissary when they are ready
Notes
wolf pack
This poem was written while on a Literature Residency in Rome in 2013-14. The poem came towards the end of the residency and draws together many things I learned during my six months there. The resulting book Lupa and Lamb refers to the founding wolf stories of Rome (lupa, wolf, prostitute) and the Christian elements represented by the lamb represented by Agnese (from Latin agnus, lamb). Santa Agnese was a Christian martyr and the patron saint of rape victims and virgins.
Anna Wulf: is a character in Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook, and the descent refers to Briefing for a Descent into Hell (1971).
La Donna Lupa Paleolitica: is currently housed in the Museo archeologico nazionale delle Marche in Ancona.