There was a woman in old Rome
Who saw what no one else could see
That when the fertile earth goes fallow
The soul breaks free
Your body did what nature demanded
Now that contract is through
Time for the deeper work to start in you
Volumnia Magna knew
What they tried to hide from you
When the mothering is through
“Don’t kill your fire
When biology gives up”
Your sensuous life begins anew
They told you to fade polite
To wither and dry, deny the light
Deny the wisdom earned at night
And call it proper, call it done
But you came here for more than breeding
In a body made for bliss
To die inside at fifty is to miss…
This is the soul-phase, darling
The reason that you came
To swim in your own darkness
Your secret, sacred game
The fertile phase is over
Now the real work starts
She taught them in her temple:
“You weren’t born just to reproduce
You were born to know yourself
Through pleasure. Through the truth.”
But most choose candy, cake
And stories of another’s sins
They imprisoned Volumnia Magna
For teaching women this:
That after all the bleeding ends
Comes the soul’s deep kiss
That sensuality, unchained from fertility
Is nature’s final gift, her purest prayer
A woman living fully in her senses
Is awesome, and easy to desire
Volumnia Magna knew
What they tried to hide from you
When the mothering is through
“Don’t kill your fire
Your soul must go higher”
Your sensuous life begins anew
This is the doorway, lady
Not the closing of the book
To fade into the grey
Is to leave your soul unfurled
The menopause is not an end…
It’s the soul’s turn to swim
In the secret desires within