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A Time Celebrant

(Change cast December 9, 2022, 11:42 AM EST)

損 (sǔn)

Decrease

Hexagram 41      

大畜 (dà xù)

The Taming Power of the Great

Hexagram 26


The root cellar empty.

Each evening Aunty counts

the remaining coins

and checks on the welfare

of Great Grandma’s necklace

tucked safely behind the linens.

Uncle rises before the birds

signal dawn’s arrival,

quietly dresses,

then sets off for the harbor.

There will be nets to mend.

After tending to the chickens

Aunty teaches me the hexagrams.

See! she implores

pointing down

to the moving line.

I want to see Aunty!

I do! But what?

Why, it’s you! she beams,

All things take shape and form.


(Time Celebrants, poems written out of encounters with the I Ching, The Book of Changes.)