we lay in heavy dew
on the city boulevard
sky eyes open
sifting aurora's seven veils
through our fingers
in the Valley of Ten Peaks
we walked on clouds
gathering bouquets of wild rain
the first time you said
you loved me
how the mountain's breath
caught and held us
in a shower of meteors
beneath earth's blue umbrella
we splashed in puddles of light
on the night
lightning pinned
my splayed wings
to the charred breast of earth
I became a quivering dragonfly
in the loft
among sweet bales of hay
we sleep
with deer mice nibbling
the chaff of our city dreams
we are cloud-smudged
on a graphite sky
blending and erasing
the sketched lines of our belonging
until this paper life is thin
breathe into me
the fossil memory of moss
breathe into me
the dust of ancient meditations
I arise, a bird
in kettled-tidepool
purple sea stars cling
to ungranted wishes
we scatter the dust of ourselves
into the drowning sea
I unfold my origami self
and swim into a lake of fire
washing my hair in ashes
the crane-legged words
of a thousand burning poems
