The Wisest Woman in the Northern Hemisphere

I visited Madam Sosostris:
her neck was as long as an ostrich;
her fingers were spidery thin;
her eyes held the future within.

We sat on the floor at her table,
immersed in her incense & chimes;
we traded in gossip & fable
& traveled to faraway times.

Her one law: “No breaking the trance
by trying to capture its dance—
no notepads, no pens, no recording.
Breathe. Let your soul do the exploring.”

& so I have no souvenir
to show off the place I went then,
but, somehow, my compass points North—
I know I will go there again.

–

Context: This was inspired by the lovely short essay Time Travel by Shripriya Mahesh. The character of Madam Sosostris was invented by Aldous Huxley, and she later made an appearance in T.S. Eliot’s ‘The Waste Land.’ I’ve resurrected her here as a personification of the ideas in Shripriya’s essay.