Before-life

Dusty star maps everywhere
under closed eyes
I sleep, snake white coils
hover, drift, dissipate,
you,
closed eyes
flowers bloom

red, green, blue,
night-bleached.

In a gasp of air,
outwards,
spins to a lifeline
an umbilical cord
cut from
sailing ships
and ghost voyages
Somehow, I close my eyes
fingers see rough
familiar river-paths.

Red bell flower,
sad
closed-eye sky.

Warm mind’s-eye,

breath’s flood
cold on the flowers,
white in the air,
gone, but taking
a body’s space while there.

Birth a cliff,
incomprehensible,
death a stranger,
mine.
unfamiliar orbit
tracing light dawn fingers.

The stars have forsaken me,
their maps spin across the
deep-sleep sky...

waking, sleeping,
somewhere between.
walking the air's thin sword,
light supports me,
Up
everywhere I turn.