Saint Teresa’s Fairy Tale

A castle made of a single diamond
Stands in a courtyard choked with thorns.
In the house are seven rooms.
In the seventh room is love.

Cutting down the clinging thorns
And severing the heads
Of snakes and rats that clog your path
Requires a sun-bright sword.

When you have crossed the courtyard
And climbed seven flights of stairs,
In the last inner chamber
What will you, seeker, find?

There, where Love bends above her,
Lies the Beloved wrapped in sleep.
And in the mirror of her mind
You have become both Love and Lover,
The snake and the crystal keep.