Georgia O'Keefe To Her Guardians, And Me

(Ghost Ranch, October 1997)

If you see
a young woman
in her mid-20s
crossing boundaries
jumping fences
leaving footprints
brazen
in suncaked earth...
a desert banshee,
Leave her be
Let her be.

For someday
it will be
that others jump her fences
to see, to know, to get a glimpse
for she like me
saw it fit
to be a boundary crosser
traipsing, trespassing
forging her own way
paying homage
to wayward ways
uncommon ways to see and be.

Young woman
standing here
on my property
turned outsider
transgressor, barging in
I leave a message for you

on these altars built of stones and bones
pieces of myself, my visions
left open now for you
a journal scrawled upon the desert floor

Do you see how it speaks?
Mark this place
know it well
taking what you saw.

Continuing the strokes
that I made here
strokes that felt, perceived
of a different way to be
strokes that show
that part of you awakened here
made presently aware
of a need
to touch
what has for so long been
blocked, fenced off, and locked.

Do not hesitate
Don't look back
throw your caution to the wind
this desert wind
And go.

Go into these strokes
their shapes and forms
into their power of transformity
liek fervored boldness
spilling from your lips
your unruly lips
into places left yet untouched
you are charged
Now go.

Lillian Fuchs
Voice, 1998