My Father’s Other Daughter

1
My father's other daughter
has joined me.
 
I'd flown at the sun and been blinded:
I saw dark ringed with glory.
 
2
My skin was a sandpaper burn;
I wanted to sleep.      I'd flown
through to the dark
but I knew I must see to remember.
 
She came to me then
and offered balm.
 
I felt blessed.
 
3
This happened:
she nursed me and I loved her.
 
When I awoke, she stood before me,
watching.
My skin was grayish and loose.  I felt wonderful
and frightened.  The balm didn't
always work:
(death had to be faced.)

4 - A New Voice
"My mother's other daughter has moved back in.
I hadn't seen her much since her teats grew and she
followed our father into adventuring. I'd made her
nervous, so she stayed away.
 
She was dying when she got here; she'd known it was 
time to seek me and the wine-like milk of death,
or baptism.
 
She said she was grateful, repeatedly. Three times she
started to cry when she felt my hands, but I
remembered how to tease her into laughter.
 
She only complained when she was afraid.
I only left her alone when she couldn't see me.
 
We were waiting for the moon and the knife.

5 - The Other Voice
Time now.          She draws a scalpel
delicately down
the back of my head,
down my spine,
     between my legs,
up my belly, between my breasts,
 
across my lips,
between my eyes, and up
to where she began.
 
My right and left are separate,
  joined by a thin bloody line.
 
She tugs gently at my hair; it falls
away from my scalp.
The cool moonlight
illuminates my new skin.
 
She pulls again, and my arms
 are uncovered
as the glove of my old skin
drops off.
 
I am new and naked,
and step
into her shadow.