Chaining Darwin

 

Chaining Darwin

 

I loved you before

I heard him land

water breaking in tall leaning breaths against the sand

always trying to catch up

and failing

In this he saw cycles of abandonment

And not the infallibility of miracles

Not the drifted bits of color laid out and drying

Whitened by the blueness of sky

Sighing hallelujahs

For in the simple contact of horizon, long and supple

Constant in its companionship

He yet saw loss

The light to the dark

The dark to every coming lightness

I wished I could have held you long before

When sadness had its own natural rhythm

And the green circled the sky

Petulant and serrated

Brother species all

Individual to sing their soft storied memories

Lullabies

Of origin, death and birth

He heard not one note

As his pencil scribbled their shapes

But withdrew from their emotions

And you then with

Ten perfect five year old fingers, indignant

perched tight around

memories I had only a peripheral view of

waiting still for the slanted window

to open

demanding yet another kind of answer