DiaBLOGue

Skin of Garments

Before I clothe myself in the holy garments of my grandmother’s priest-
hood, my hands thin cocoa butter over the veins of my temple. 

I have to protect my skin.

My New Temples

The beach is my temple, 
The water the voice of God shooshing toward me, inviting, calm,
The stones the decorations that light the fire of the pillar,
The sand the handshake that draws me to the holy of holies. 

Then and Now

Had I one word to describe our Temple, 
The word used would undoubtedly be “white.” 
The corridors inside all glow with light, 
And purity within this space is ample. 

Limen

What I want is between softness and stone, 
between god and Adam— what I want, 
is something between fruits and meats. 
I want to move on the water and out of the water, 
I want to hang from the tree and rot in the earth. 

Ritual

If a man has a dream and the dream is from God and the man writes a 
play based on the dream, the God, and other things he believes to be Godly 

If a man has an experience one might classify as transcendent and the 
man tries to put that wordless vision into words and practices

Queer Polygamy

Dialogue 52.1 (Spring 2019): 33–43
Ostler addresses the problems with what she terms the “Standard Model of Polygamy.” She discusses how these problems might be resolved if it is put into a new type of model that she terms “Queer Polygamy.”

Condemn Me Not

Dialogue 52.1 (Spring 2019): 17–32
I do not lend the weight of truth to the language of ritual. Such language is symbolic. But even in the context of symbolism, language that is so preferential toward men and dismissive of women—especially when such language more aptly demonstrates the bias of the writers than the purpose of the ritual—needs to be removed.