Lotus

The mountains

that keep you

were hidden-

entangled in

the skies, in the earth,

in warm sways of currents

atop foaming

wave crests and clouds;

in gummy envelopes

of moss that

merged into the mountains’

deepest pores and

sought the water stored

at the bottom of

their long arms.

The evening always

seemed a mystery,

its edges faded to

purple tatters

after the sun sank.

Then the summer seas

roiled.  And

all the storms,

reflected on

the brightness

of the ocean’s face,

coalesced into a

fantastic night-

breeze, a midnight hurricane

that dreamed up all the islands;

that dreamed of volcanic eruptions

in the landscape among the stars.

From the pacing of the

islands’ graceful rounds

around the mountains

the morning streaked the

sky with yellow and orange-

while the far-off sea

waved in time to their pulse.