Promise

Remember when we were bold,

And we'd steer our vessel firmly,

Whispering prayer-song

As the night-pearl flexed its force.

Remember a salted spirit-forge

From tide's breath to night swells,

And currents from coral to anemone

Rushing by the chromis and tangs.

I'd pull old oars, maple stained,

Through the viscous sea

For hinted-sail of wind and music

Until our feet became thunder on the land.

We'd never avoid town or fountain light,

Leading us to old places beyond home,

With echoes of horse hooves on cobblestone

On a once-broken road, rich with story.

***

I'd call you Savage One,

Tiger's Eye, Feet Prowler,

Dark Rhythm, Lovely Shadows,

And Naked Constellation.

You'd dream as a tiger lily:

Fresh nectar, with memory in your eyes;

Your thoughts like funnel web spiders:

Weaving, crawling, creeping, spinning.

And through aroma of vineyards

And tongue-tip-taste of sweet wine,

We'd find our way back to water

Before last twilight on a sea of fire.

I kept my promise, I brought you home

To the deep celestial, for your ocean soul,

Where we tangled as heavy boat rope

And baked in the warmth of a slow-burning sky.

Roam

My thoughts twirled 'bout in song and sleep,

Toward my chair, I again did creep,

To find a voice or vacant whisper,

Soft and sullen with meaning deep.

I stretched my arms and cocked my head,

At no great distance from my bed,

Safe I was, whether cold or coward,

To invite that existential dread.

True, my door was but steps away,

From human light or dream decay,

So might I venture, were my soul well,

But not this night, no, not this day.

In black that hides the moors and heather,

Or a city lass in lace or leather,

I shall find no towers nor cricket chirp,

I'll remain safe from man and weather.

And in this house, this quiet home,

Where stars are blocked, no light shone,

I'll type and drift through lost ether,

That only fingers, not feet, can roam.

A Long Journey to Earth

We dropped out of warp near Andromeda,

In cold black—every speck a galaxy,

Radiant heat coupled to the cabin oxygen

From our cooling Alcubierre.

Your gaze sparked memory

Of shedding your EV suit,

From our first planet in NGC 2403,

And bare skin smooth as a neutron star.

My thoughts around you like trillions

Of pieces of Saturn's rings;

Your body on me as Venus's atmosphere:

A blanket of heat and chemical art.

My burning finger tips,

Gliding like comets across

Your cheek to your neck,

Approaching a fast-thumping pulsar.

We pushed through the universe

Embodying the Lorentz force,

In the direction of the electric,

Pulling us together, the magnetic;

Finding I want you in the way

A tokamak compresses hot plasma,

While your lips moved on me like

A nebula, darkly bright in slow formation.

Remember witnessing the power of fusing iron,

100 billion Celsius, in the supernova

Of the NGC 3109 blue supergiant—

Your mind’s eye like the storm on Jupiter.

But after twenty million parsecs,

And enriched with cosmic self-awareness,

I find you are my Earth, the gravity well I want

To slide deep inside, and remain.