A shadow woman dances in the moonlight, backlit and lithe, her movements are slow and predatory. She moves toward me, her form growing smaller as she merges with the silhouettes of hedges and sheds, eyes glinting in the dark, mad as gold.

Then something else stirs in the gloom.

I awake with a start, my cat curled and purring in my lap, her warmth penetrating as my breath steams in the cold night air. I stroke her softly and cradle her tabby form, so easily loved and loving. She stretches and turns her head, a small motion filled with grace, and in that moment the boundary between she and I slips away. We are two lamps lit by the same light. She is I in another life.

Image and excerpt from my forthcoming book Hawk Divine.