(For Leslie)

Now, there is no telling birds’ curved shadows
from their crossing flights; the jeweled
antlers from winds that gorge them. Now all
flows in the veins of a darker rainbow
and motions couple in the dusk.

It is a time of coming together in the land.
Gelled sun bursts like a yolk on the
meadow-line; sky’s violet eye deepens.
We lie scattered on the fading tapestry
of grass, looking upon ourselves with wonder.
One cannot own another (and I
could not lose you in this Mystery).

The leaf, the ground, the shadow meet
and fall into darkness together, as
the three of us– you, me, and all of us–
join ourselves with the fading shadows
and enter the smoky land coming together.