And love rises like some some great swan

Above the mountains, reaching for the sun,
Shattering ceilings, launching stars.
There are fireworks in my heart,
That long to touch the body of my beloved,
To fling our love at the sun and watch it burn,
Knowing the more we burn the more we love.
And love breaks free like some caged animal
That has sprung the lock and runs with the wind.
And the life just blooms, and the animals dance in the flood.

Noah once took these creatures on a voyage,
A thousand species making love below deck,
Making love to to the rhythm of the waves,
To perpetuate the song of which each is a note
And they all make a harmony and movement.
The animals assembled in those days below deck.
Where they agreed to depart from the ship
And make of their bodies but one great being
That would float to shore and ascend to the heavens,
That would swallow the earth and make their own universe.

And God flung thunderbolts that gathered in a fire
Only to see them just dive into the flames.
And he built a wall that they buried in excrement.
And he sent an army that they turned into stones.
My love is like this resistance that dances in the blood
Of its own destruction, sends up shoots from below the grave,
And all of these animals are gathering in a flood,
The elephants and penguins, ostriches and antelopes,
Crocodiles, cattle, lemmings, and lions.

A poem can be a bit like the eruption of some great volcano.
What begins in trembling spasms soon builds in a crescendo
And breaks in the night like a tidal wave quietly coming to shore.
And the rams horn blew and the walls broke down and crumbled.
And the ripples shimmered to the edges of the kingdom,
Where we held a convention and elected a dolphin,
Who led us to the ocean, where we all began anew,
Each a member of some vast body of love,
From which they come and go like rainbows
After a warm summer rain.

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Editor: Ashleigh Hitchcock

Photo: flickr