I. 6×6, With Reference to Rain

A tree is falling down
somewhere, always – the bark
perhaps shed – no matter
whatever the state – all
trees fall at some time – or
decay takes them slowly

the point is – all that noise
all that lost feeling calls
out louder than grass growth
louder than the mushroom’s
creaking love of all life
ingesting – and bright plants

– they swarm in a dancing
wind and send small sermons
out from damp petals – out
in the clouded darkness
out in the beading rain
every single gold day.

There are arguments made –
witness the ant’s rebuke
to the flat earth’s respite
witness the air breathing
the whole flotilla in
and with a breath again

this shout of all star-fall.
Billion years refute still
longer still years – it’s mad
considering the dark
to look at this strong joy
at all this kerfuffle

A plane beams – a car moans
a shed settles – notice;
while all this can be changed
there is still the moment
when you unwrap a gift
hear the rain’s soft shuffling

Alexia

After asking permission to sit
I held your hand and examined it;
five pages, each embedded with more meaning
than infinite libraries. I flicked
from page to page, and finally
I touched the palm, this mystic object
I could not parse, not then.

Deaf to your breathing, your signature, your eyes
I let it fall, then left the bed
and left your room, and you.
I do not think we ever spoke again.

Histories and worlds enfold this move
inevitable as it was; from here it seems the fulcrum
of a trajectory not taken –
As an old satellite, decaying orbit
suddenly snags the atmosphere and falls
silent in the darkness, till the planet’s roaring
shakes it out, it rips apart;
just so, I left the building.

And now, from time to time, in another land
I dwell upon your hand.