Treehouse

from Mary Haidri, author of Celestial Divorce and The Cactus Moment

1. Unbraid your mother’s hair. Brush it carefully. Among all the grey and silver, watch for small sparks igniting between the teeth of the comb. Catch these in your palm and put them into a mason jar. Do not punch holes in the lid.

2. When you have caught twenty sparks in the jar, walk out into the night. Let the jar light your path. Find a rose bush and break off the largest thorn.

3. Walk until you reach an empty field. Find a stick. Draw a line in the grass, nine feet long and three feet wide. Shape it like your mother’s body.

4. Take your jar of sparks and the thorn and sit in the middle of the outline shaped like your mother. Wait in the dark without moving. Wait until the first light rises in the east.

5. Hold up your jar and observe: the sparks have formed into a single flame. Open the lid. Fish for the flame with the rose thorn. It will wriggle and resist. Once hooked, pull the flame out of the jar. Offer it to the sun.