TOP DOG PRESS

Litany

by Skian McGuire

Lady Goddess of the human world, of ingenuity and the delight of making things, of human appetites and desires and everything we get Not Quite Right, but Boy Howdy, We're Trying, Lady of all our well-meant failures as well as our happy accidents, Goddess watching over everything we do even if we're paying no attention to her,

Lady Goddess of Legos and Dogloos,
        of Swiss Army knives and Laz-e-boy recliners,
        search engines, cell phones, and automatic dishwashers,
        of walkmans and Dremel moto-tools, paper, microwave ovens,
        corkscrews, polarfleece, sweat-wicking underwear, and ball-point pens

Goddess of the computer I write this with, may it never crash

Goddess of the Model T, of Volkswagen Beetles both old and new, of 60's Mustangs, of all the

darling little European convertibles even if they do break down, leak oil and strew parts behind them as they go, not to mention decapitating their drivers in a rollover

Goddess of Triumph Bonnevilles and Norton Commandos,

of Vincent Black Lightnings and Royal Enfields, of the Ducati and the Moto Guzzi that are known to their fond owners as Duck and Goose, of the snooty Beemer and the humble Honda, of crotch rockets and cruisers, of every machine ever made to make earth-bound humans feel like they're flying

Goddess of parachutes and hang-gliders and parasails and bungee jumping,

rappelling and skijumping and high-diving and being shot from cannons, of every method humans use to actually fly, however stupid

Goddess of Times Square and the Golden Gate Bridge
Goddess of Stonehenge, Goddess of Sleeping Beauty's Castle
Goddess of Mount Rushmore, the Cathedral of Notre Dame, and the Empire State Building

Goddess of hot dog stands that look like enormous hot dogs, of steakhouses that wear

cowboy hats, of giant cows selling milk and a big duck where one may buy (surprise!) the aforementioned poultry

Goddess of cell-phone towers disguised as trees and plastic

versions of food that may be kept permanently in storefront displays

Goddess of toaster waffles and individually wrapped

cheese slices, canned soup, microwave burritos, cold cereal
and instant breakfast

Goddess of Guinness, Goddess of pizza, Goddess of Tastykake Butterscotch Crimpets
Goddess of steak on the grill and fried greens and fresh-baked bread with butter
Goddess of clam chowder and butter-and-sugar corn
Goddess of chiles rellenos and guacamole
Goddess of chicken stew with dumplings and porridge with cream
Goddess of potatoes in all their possible forms

Goddess of frozen margaritas in tangerine liqueur with a plastic shooter of tequila

dropped into the glass for good measure, like they do it at the Dallas BBQ on
44th St.

Goddess of hot dogs from a New York vendor, Philadelphia cheesesteaks,

hot chewy pretzels that other people put mustard on, and the smell but not the taste of roasted chestnuts at Christmas time

Goddess of everything fun and interesting and tasty, may we never stop thinking them up

Please, Lady, bless us, and give us some helpful hints if you would, on what to do with the trash

v v v

Lady Goddess of the Intersection of Worlds, where we humans butt up against the things we didn't make and usually end up ashamed of ourselves, Goddess of everything that has learned to accommodate us or die, Goddess of our own rejects, Goddess of everything that exists whether we want it to or not

Lady Goddess of peregrine falcons who take up residence on skyscraper ledges and

geese who make summer homes of highway medians

Goddess of the mice who carry dry catfood to the farthest corners of my house, finding

temporary storage stations in shoes along the way

Goddess of the rats

Goddess of coyotes and cockroaches,
Goddess of seagulls, starlings, sparrows, and bluejays
Goddess of fleas and cockroaches.
Goddess of unwanted children and unwelcome prophets, of whistleblowers
        and Welfare mothers, bag ladies and the guys who wash your car windows
        whether you want them to or not
Goddess of all of us who were never meant to survive

Goddess of queers and misfits,
        funny uncles, perverts, pimps and whores,
        faggots and bulldaggers,
Goddess of sexuality
Goddess of contradiction
Goddess of everything profligate and extravagant and irrational and obscene
    Goddess of the violence that is in nature
        and the happy fantasy of peace.
            Goddess of unwelcome blessings
                and comfortable woe

Lady Goddess of the poor who are always with us and sometimes are us

Goddess of the lumper that fed Ireland until the blight destroyed it, have mercy on the well-fed English anyway

Goddess of the decimated rainforests and the Dustbowl's stripped topsoil, Goddess of

the eroded hillsides that slide down on the poor villages who grazed them to death because they had no choice, Goddess of the permafrost we've permanently carved our initials into with big truck tires, Goddess of the rivers we polluted and the air we can hardly breathe in summer, Goddess of the ozone and the blind sheep in Tierra Del Fuego who wish that there was more of it left

Goddess of the rabbits we brought to Australia; we know now that it was a bad idea

Goddess of the mosquitoes we brought to Hawaii as well as all the invisible and nearly

invisible creatures that should have stayed where they'd already made their peace

Goddess of the dodo and the passenger pigeon, please forgive us
Goddess of the buffalo and the grizzly bear, please have mercy on us
Goddess of the osprey and the wild turkey and the gray wolf, thank you for giving us a     second chance
Goddess of everything we haven't destroyed yet and all the habitats we haven't ruined

Please, Lady, save us from ourselves if you can, and if you can't, at least save Them from Us, there are really too many of us anyway

v v v

Lady Goddess of the Rest of the Universe, of everything I am too small or too large to see, of everything that existed before me and will go on after, of everything that has nothing to do with me, Goddess of the bits of the world I get to see and hear and smell and touch and sometimes taste even though they weren't meant for me, hallelujah

Goddess of white pines, jackpines, scrub, and pitch
Goddess of hemlock and cedar
Goddess of oak, maple, beech, cherry, and birch
Goddess of skunks
Goddess of owls
Goddess of snow fleas
Goddess of fireflies
Goddess of crickets
Goddess of moths
Goddess of monarch butterflies
Goddess of big-bellied sticky spiders
        of small hairy black spiders
        of tiny green spiders
        of lightning-quick tiny gray spiders
Goddess of box turtles, wood turtles, and snappers
        (may they all be safe from cars)
Goddess of great blue herons
Goddess of mallards and Canada geese
Goddess of pintails and canvasbacks and Mergansers who have
        Gone Native
Goddess of mountain laurel
Goddess of blackberry
        blueberry, bearberry, and ferns,
        mushrooms of all kinds, red efts, tiny brown toads,
        chipmunks, invisible fluttering explosions of grouse
Goddess of ladyslippers and trillium
Goddess of dragonflies that hover and dart like living levitating jewels
Goddess of pileated woodpeckers who pound trees like drums
        across acres of forest and are never seen, whose calls scream out from
        the branches over my head and are still invisible
Goddess of chickadees who have so many different things to say
        and follow the sound of chainsaws to good eating
Goddess of the hawk whose mere presence makes all the bluejays hide in bushes and

complain until she goes away

Goddess of incredibly yellow finches and grosbeaks and impossibly blue bluebirds and

the warm nostalgia of bright red cardinals in winter

Goddess of wrens and sparrows and nondescript finches, of all the little brown jobs

whose names will ever be known only to the dedicated

Goddess of black flies, deer flies, and ticks, Goddess of mosquitoes, Goddess of gnats,

may I not begrudge them a little blood and forgive me for killing them when I do

Goddess of porcupines, may there be more quick ones and fewer dead ones, and may

my dogs learn to Leave Them Alone!

Goddess of wintergreen, nature's favorite flavor
Goddess of lichens, Goddess of moss
Goddess of the springy red duff and the rich black humus, Goddess of the sandy soil, Goddess of the clay, Goddess of bacteria that return everything to the earth
Goddess of the breeze that rides up the mountain to cool me, Goddess of thermals

under the wings of hawks, Goddess of the still hot air of summer that makes me feel like a lizard, completely warm at last, Goddess of air that smells of rain, Goddess of winter air that tastes like water from an iron cup, Goddess of air that carries the smell of everything

Goddess of the sun and the stars, Goddess of lightning and the tails of fireflies, Goddess

of the fires of destruction and renewal, Goddess of the electrons that flash across the neural synapses of all animals, Goddess of the energy I can't detect but am told is there, Goddess of the Light

Goddess of springs, Goddess of clear streams, Goddess of pools of rainwater where the

peepers sing and breed, Goddess of beaver ponds, Goddess of the rivers that the streams flow to and the oceans they all come to in the end, Goddess of the rain and the mist and the dew, and my own sweat and blood and spit

Lady Goddess of everything whose name I will never know, Goddess of everything I will

never notice but I'm glad is there anyway, Goddess of everything I hope never to harm by ignorance (Lady, help me tread lightly), Goddess of everything I have yet to learn, Goddess of everything I love that does well to fear me, because I am human and can't help it, Goddess of Life

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!

	

 

Ó Skian McGuire 2003