Tathagatha Do you remember Tathagatha? Do you remember that they called him Prince? Do you remember the night he saved her life? They said he was a hero worthy of Her Priestess. Do you remember the walks? Do you remember the nights of desert stars? Do you remember the night she soothed his soul? They called her healer, they called her Ocean’s Edge. Do you remember All Soul’s night? Do you remember the incantation, that spread Through the grass like ripples on a pond? The one taught to him in Oklahoma By one named ‘Red’ who said they were his relation. Do you remember the benediction he raised, To the one to whom he had given the child of Pele? Do you remember the tear he shed when He felt her drifting, as you carried him away? You said it was for his own good. Did you kill him that night? Or did you only lock him away, Behind the door with the silver and black sigill, The one inscribed ‘aloha oe’? What demons guard that door? Did you silence his tears of anguish? Or do you hear his pain still? Is the soul that she still hears crying out, Singing in the darkness for her? Or is it only the echo of a memory? Is there still no place for him in this world? Or will you set him free? Ocean remembers Tathagatha. Ocean remembers the prince of her heart. Ocean remembers he who was her life. A thousand years she waited for him; Her hero. Ocean remembers the dreams. Ocean remembers ‘parting, never parted’. Ocean remembers the vows of so many lifetimes. Patience born of a thousand waves upon a thousand shores. She waits. Vicky Fraser - April 1998.