The Cold of Cailleach

[Leanne]

The cloud-crowned thunderer
speaks to his people
with the falling rain
 
He speaks often
and is not always polite
 
Turning her smooth face skyward
the loch lady drinks
at one with the salmon til season’s end
 
She blesses her followers
with gifts of ale and mead
 
The threefold goddess
blue-faced now and one-eyed
breathes ice into open-mouthed crags
 
Her love for her people
has no room for weakness
 
Foreign stones do not crush
a breast that has risen and fallen
since suns were ice
 
To be reborn each year
until the years are no more
 
In the shadow of the storm
the great stag watches
and dreams of spring
 
When he and his newly-young goddess
will bring the land to life