Step Into the Circle

Today's ritual will let you
pour out a shot from
the crystal decanter
of other people's feelings;
will steep us in their essences;
will let seep into our psyches
every trace of their flavors.

This is not a popular spell.
Not every flavor is tasty.

Taste the rain.
Taste the dusty musk of pollen
washed out of the wind and
down into the hungry funnels of flowers.
Tase the rancid-vinegar agony
of crushed love lashing your palate.
Taste satisfaction like green blades waving;
like braids of grain and the
decadent soil from which they sprouted.
Taste ten thousand slights;
rage and humiliation
stinging the sides of your tongue.
Taste peat and oak, the smoke
of twenty thousand fiery triumphs.

This is not a popular spell:

To sip someone else's elixir
means you may never again
be able to hide from yourself
the myriad flavors mixed in your own potion.

Still, for those who dare,
this ritual will reveal
how small even the mightiest feel
and how mighty
even the smallest
(even you).

Still interested? Steel yourself, and
step into the circle.