"Goddess of Smiths"

Goddess of Smiths

breath dissolving iron

liquid bronze and gold

white heat who destroys

with one cruel blow

you guide the hammer   Brigit

death and life together

forging to shatter 

shattering to forge anew

and what is fashioned

cookpot for the hospitaller

vast enough to hold a cow

ale crock   chariot furnishing

offering dish   cloak pin

sword

beat me on your anvil   Brigit

melt me in your pot

knit me solid

make me whole

bring from me a fine bossed cauldron

offering to your endless round

in this life and the next

this life and the next

Mael Brigde
Poem copyright Casey June Wolf (2013).

First appeared in Brigit: Sun of Womanhood, edited by Patricia Monaghan and Michael McDermott.