On Our 29th Anniversary

Lights that ripple on the ceiling,
Sprung from angles on the bathtub’s
Bay, kaleidoscopes exposing
And concealing, like exploding nebulae,
The waving flesh of water’s polyps,
Painting on the white wall’s lapping screen
Portraits of the swash that mediates
All things between, from tip of sky
To deep sea trench, the sloshing whorls
And films of ocean’s skin
Compounding both our heights
And depths within its limpid lens,
Balancing the galaxy
With a Jacuzzi shell of pearl,
The way that atmosphere’s thin
Membrane passes on
The orchestrations of the world,
Planetariums of gauze
Projected from the stellar dust,
But driven by the lesser laws
Governing an ordinary wash,
By our neglected human spheres,
Until their liquid flare,
Their prominence,
Eventually appears, once
The proper depth is there.

July 22nd–24th, 2009
Kailua