A rite of Tammuz

Tammuz in anger spurned the goddess;
His heel turning ground the earth
And the whole closed over,
Woodash and dearth in his footprint's tread.
He came down to the shore of the drought
To sail on the back of the sea.

Spat in his hands and rubbed his eyes;
The stinging salt and the spittle ran
Down and his vision hummed in flame.
He set himself to stare at the stars
Till he should burn or fall beyond wave's end.

Tammuz walked in the water's embrace,
Caught and squeezed in the thighs of the wind:
Then he and the stars and the wind fall down
In a twisting heap on the boards, and sleep.

He wakes again in the arms of the day
But while he slept the stars have shifted
And the ship is heavy and the sea
Which was cloaked has been stripped and flailed.
He sleeps again and does not wake.