A bitter wind dances across the valley, blowing my shadow to the sinister side of the path, conspiring to leave with the moon: a slow ascent before a                                      cautious                                      descent. Those of you who want the earth for your children must sink into it; not like Gaia, who blasted off the planet to map the galaxy; but more like Ana Mendieta, who landed before leaving. Thus, her milk is a river returning to the sea.

 

Gaia: This “Gaia is an ambitious mission to chart a three-dimensional map of our Galaxy, the Milky Way, in the process revealing the composition, formation and evolution of the Galaxy.” European Space Agency, 3 Dec 2020. Gaia blasted off from Kourou in French Guiana in 2013.
Ana Mendieta: (1948-1995) "a Cuban-American performance artist, video-artist, and sculptor interested in the relationship between the female body and nature." http://www.artnet.com/artists/ana-mendieta
to the sea: "For in the tripartite shamanistic structure of Northwest Coast cosmology, the sea represents the Underworld." J.M. Vastokas, "The Shamanic Tree of Life." ArtsCanada, "Stones, Bones and Skin: Ritual And Shamanic Art. December 1973/January 1974.