Colloquy

 

The sea shifts

and the wind and the sand, 

such polyrhythms — this earthly agitation —

 

among the billion stars and stray planets

stretching out multitudes of light years, plowing

into the on-and-on emptiness, searchlighting.

 

How such a restless mess could pause

long enough to hammer out the blueprint of a cell,

then multiply it, add flagella, flippers, fins,

gills, lungs, the whole gamut of sensoria, is beyond me.

But I admire the unfailing desire to crawl out.

 

Above the sea, blustered about,

gannets circle and rise and arc across the sky,

fold in their wings and plummet —

bright white darts piercing the slate-green

roiling waves. Such a gorgeous,

 

splattering response, this

syncopated wing-dip and rise

of body and heart,

 

this

 

inhale and exhale

of pure hungering after.