Atoms

Atoms

There are more atoms inside the eyes than stars in the universe.
We are simply collections of atoms
with names, personalties, social spheres.
I often got to places in this world where people’s gazes disappear:
riverbanks, deep woods, ocean beaches
past the cabana umbrellas.
When there are no words, I help myself to life.
In this dance, no one leads. One choral wave
darts onto the beach, making music with the sand.
Minnows quiver together creating a quiver of symphonic intimacy.
The stories tell themselves in these places.
The sun paints, white blossoms perfume everything.
The dragonfly keeps watch over the lilies dreams.
Here I leave the stories, the beliefs
about myself on the shore with my shoes.
The water tells me the temperature.
I adjust. I remember sensations within
myself forgotten here. In these places,
when tension is felt in a bird’s ‘squawk’, when fear
is felt as an animal discharges and trembles feelings,
there is no holding in. Attraction is unbearable.
It is breathtaking. It is my ability
to change with the elements and still feel myself.
Here the sugar can run hard down the maple
and the most beautiful plants could kill you in a second.
The branches here are older than my grandparents
and rest so easy. When leaves rustle,
in the almost flirtatious sound of pure air, I could
grow drunk on the colors here.
Streams are not secretive, their directions
are forthright. The fish swim with them.
You know where the trout are headed. There is
so much certainty, and yet so much uncertainty.
It is like sitting down with a book you know
you are going to love and reading beautiful sentences
you love because, you know, they will never leave you.
You are made of them now.
They are a part of all those atoms
inside your beautiful, starry eyes.