In the darkness of the backyard
if we are in light sleep
we can hear the lemons letting go
falling, falling through the branches
below where they have ripened not into
sweetness but into two oval
yellow shapes tart puckering and
letting go
and slipping like yellow comets
to the grass which catches them in their
green embrace, thumped to earth
with a green tail of a leaf that
fell with them.

A dark celebration the Aztecs
called it Xocotlhaetzi or
fall of the fruits and
the god who reigns now in
the fruit falling falling festival
is Ixozauhgui yellow face.

I roll over in bed and look through
the window in the black air,
yellow faces full heads fall from
the air whooshing through branches
that slow the god down so he lands
with a gentle thunk close to our sleepy
gray heads.

In the morning we will gather the lemons
and offer up their yellow blood
to the deity who watches over the
falling fruit,
the same god who ripens
our spirits and points us toward
the Sun.

Dennis Patrick Slattery, Ph. D., is a member of the Core Faculty in Mythological Studies, Pacifica Graduate Institute. He is the author of 12 books, including 3 volumes of poetry, two with accompanying CDs. His poetry has appeared in many journals and magazines over the years. He has written more than 200 articles and reviews that focus on the confluence of culture, spirit, soul, myth and poetics. Dr. Slattery's work includes The Idiot: Dostoevsky's Fantastic Prince and The Wounded Body: Remembering the Markings of Flesh (Suny Series in Psychoanalysis and Culture), and Station-To-Station: A Monastic Memoir. He is co-editor with Lionel Corbett of Depth Psychology: Meditations in the Field as well as Psychology at the Threshold, and a volume of poetry, Casting the Shadows: Selected Poems. His most recent work is a collection of poetry, A Limbo of Shards: Essays on Memory Myth and Metaphor. He is a Fellow of The Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture where he teaches the classics each summer to high school teachers in a Summer Institute for Teachers. He lectures and offers workshops to a variety of Jungian groups in the United States and Canada.

Read more articles by Dennis Patrick Slattery in Mythic Passages

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