the earth lay with her hair back
rivers tinted bronze and streaked with gold
by the sun’s setting

my love folds the sky in layers
colors blending at the west horizon

i breathe with the tide
at evening, these shallows
mean to consume me
the waters lapping at soft grasses

to invite her east-rising shadow

stars blink, each a different pulse
hinting at their desire
the steady light of outer planets
sustains me through endless rivers

my love is the evolution
of the circular to the spherical

i let the earth draw me
into the center of her
an inner whisper
as blood pouring through veins or
worlds tearing across the silence of space

the current quickens
i take on the weight of air
and her glitters fall before me
as daylight spills across her

i wake to the dew
glistening on her fields
the sun warming our skin
the night another hidden dimension

the earth lay with her hair back
asleep beside me, dreaming

she dreams the sun revolves around us
she dreams as if she could stop time

Previous published online and in print in The Syzygy Poetry Journal