I bore my arms into the earth,
Into the currents of the spinning core,
From roots I take into myself the vital sap of ancient forests,
I become a dynamo charged with
The force of shoots breaking the surface,
Of a vixen nursing her whelps,
Of fish clouding the lake with spawn,
Of moss covering rocks and trees facing the sun.
I then grasp your wrists
And pass into your pulses the power
Of our burgeoning world.
Your blood is the color of old iron
And flows through your veins with the ease of a youth
Cutting swaths of sweet hay with his hissing scythe.

I wave my parallel arms like signal flags,
And the birds of the air glide into formation,
And there is your father, the great white owl with his silent wings,
And there our dear lost friend, the albatross, sufficient unto himself,
Birds of every sort whispering to me what they have learned,
Watching the shadow of night sweeping across great cities,
Watching the inhabitants falling into slumber
Block by block, house by house,
Watching the land flex and heave,
Watching and circling and overhearing
The earth chanting to itself.
I place my palms on your temples
And what passes into you is like the flashes of light
Birds see from all the scattered wells of the world,
And reflected into them their grace and plumage,
Fleeting, like moments of ecstasy.

I watch the women walk,
Voluptuous and elegant,
In the ancient city,
And one I send to you
And she enters your very marrow,
She and you break through the plaster wall
In the grotto of Monte Cristo,
And before you, all alight, is the vast wealth of Cardinal Spada,
Yet she is a treasure far beyond gems and pearls.
She is that tingling at the base of your spine
When you hear the cello
Or see great ships pass under the bridges of the Bosporus.

I give you this airy yet fervent thing,
This castle and these knights,
Enchanted forests, dragons and maidens,
Peasants broadcasting seed,
A kingdom in a thimble,
Or: is it that
You are the ever-rolling ocean,
The surf thundering against the shore,
And at once the rock dissolving into the sea?

January 9th, 2007