Ceremony

I was alive in that night, upgazed
With my primitive eyes 
Picking the glinting, the flashing of myriad
Fires so distant the heat came to my skin
Cold and blue.  I shivered, threw more wood
Onto my flames' small ring, tried to feel
Warm huddling closer to that clustering.

Across the glen I heard laughter and singing.
I saw the flames lighting our stonering, 
My friends shadowing the fire, the flat stone planes.
Figures swayed and jumped as orange showers 
Fluttered upwards into the black abyss above our heads.

What is this place, this gritty land of
Bevelled stone, moss outcrops and tall tall trees
Where heather and bracken reach past our waists?
In the cold season, we freeze, in summer, we are
Released by the sun's warming our faces, our arms.
We divest ourselves of clothing, and we dance.

This time, the highest point of sun, is best.
This night is summer's midpoint, so we dance, we sing, 
Together face cold oncoming, and we know it.  That's 
Why we cut our stones, moved them hard and long,
Made them flatfaced things, made them inwardfacing rings,
An emblem of our company, our faith and love.
A fealty-sign to life, not fear, to ward off pain for those
No longer here, those mourned and burned.

That circle is our place of heart.  We feast there, we debate,
Judge doers of wrong, and worship the lights outside
And in.  It warms us with its steadfast form
Braving the warring winds undying through winter's 
Cracking, unscarred by months of snow.

But still we fear.  We fear the earth we walk upon,
A solid thing, but it could spring its clasps its
Gyroscope could lurch and tip us over the lip
To fall inside that black, cold dome our eyes admire.
We pray we will not lose, but what if this is all there is,
Our love and laughter, the faith we have each to each,
Our young?

Such questions mean that at this midpoint night 
We eat, we drink, we dance, we hope to survive
Another winter, see another spring of waters rushing.
We hope our circlestones, our fires, each other, are
Ceremony enough to keep us warm and safe from harm.

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