the universe

biking with you through Burgundy

hiking the Lombardy hills

my hands cover you at night

beneath the soft sheets of dreams

In my small cabin in Cheyenne

where I wait out the cold alone

these flicker on the screen of my tv

ghosts alive in static as I sleep

never-were moments

of what might have been

if we'd had the courage

to love each other again

billions and billions of galaxies

the dark rocks hurtling toward Earth

our sky slowly boiling

oceans opening to drown us

falling trees, crashing cars

bullets, hot fireplace pokers

busy people who turn away

from the small child

who cries alone

in your heart

the universe

is a cold and empty place

unless, until

a formation of molecules

brain chemicals

lit by optic recognition traversing synaptic pathways

a spark from which a flame

grows until your heart burns

and, consumed, becomes

a beautiful black lump of coal

glowing with heat

because

love

we all do, from time to time

rub soft vulnerable intimate exposures

to callouses. The small eye of the child soul

no bully, says sorry and works the rough spots out

with firm attentiveness to the underlying fabric

of skin, emotion, passion, the weave

of blood and muscle and nerve that makes you

human. And the last time I loved she turned on me

my ex, having discarded the stones

I had collected as a teen to build my walls

demanded repairs to the past

a honey do list of things to fix

like: remove the roots of the willow

beneath the busted springs of my childhood

When I could not

she cursed me

she beat me

in divorce, gave me another

shove to the mud

mocking my regret

am I not, father of her children, leader of a family

armed with a backpack of poems, custodian of reasons enough

never to trust anyone else to touch my body and my work?

you know who I am

the man

who trusts you

nothing

except the smell of my arms around you

the heat of the whole moon, the sunset in April

gold light on the clouds: sights common as water

my eyes are poor word-weakened eyes

but they are unafraid to see you naked

in your secret place, where you think about me

often

you are my universe

I am here for you, I exist

to master you the way

a sail masters the wind, by shape

and force, one with what it holds

propelled across Easter waves by invisible sighs

if our universe proves so poorly designed

that what I feel, this campfire inside me

must die and gray to ash to manure the soil

why even so let's sleep in one another's arms

and I'll croon a polyglottal tune in the notch of your throat

awaken every one of your chakras

flare instantly and brilliantly along the choiring arc

of your un-cogent chord of infinite assent

a flash so bright the sun will fade

an abundance of sparkles in our collective memory

oh just for an instant: and that will be our defiance

against the pattern that has condemned all we are to be

one with