As you are distant from me
And as time has lapsed,
Words have fallen short
Somewhere between us,
Matterless.

As your arms and legs have reached
Long-dreamed in directions
Undetermined, undone,
As all the skies of our brief time
Turn colors slowly round
From night to day and back and back,
Our lives are whole,

.....................fired
From separate logs or tinders,
Flames tree-topped and underbrush detailed,
Seared by twig, thorn, and leaf,
Instant in the deep orange and flare,
Black clear lines of every turn and angle,
Aspirant and lost, caught
In the fraction before ash
Like cracked and shunted lightning,
Adaptive, running, purposive.

I cannot speak of distance and you.

We are acres of surge and smoke,
Counties and hillsides,
Valleys cauldroned,
Mountain crowns enlivened and furious,
Stars of our own energy.