In the Beginning

A woman is speaking in a place of rocks.

Her voice is the water of that place

and founds the time there.

She says the world, begun out of nothing,

stands by turning

out of grasp, a lover’s yes and no,

stay and go, singing stepping

in and out of time and momentum,

the body’s doctrine

of need and scarcity,

the heart’s full measure

of night and day, sons and daughters.

A woman is talking. Her voice

is a boat and oars in a place of rocks.

Stranded in a rocky place,

it is a garment torn to pieces.

It is the light,

accomplished by wind and fire,

abiding inside the rocks.

A memory of the sea, it’s what remains.

Homesickness in the rocks.

Homecoming in the trees.