Invocation

Goddamn it!
I have been waiting here for hours
how many? Five?
Yes, five hours I have been sitting here
Waiting for you.
I have the prayer mat and shawl
I have lit the seven candles
I brought all the right supplications
I have all the invocations
I satisfied all the superstitions
I have sought all the right transmissions
I have arranged the right numbers
I have slept the seven slumbers
I brought all the sharp devices
I have offered the sacrifices
And you don’t even so much as drop a toe
to meet my mat
Not even a whiff of wind
Not a flicker of the candle
Not a movement or a cadence
Not a ponderous, descending trail of wax
Cascading from its red molten crown
Where wick and flame are redolent
With vapors malic and warm
Awakening me to the silly fact
That...

So that’s where you’ve been hiding
You most elusive Muse.