“Looking up Among the Sugar Pines–Calaveras Grove” by Carleton E. Watkins. Image courtesy of the Gilman Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Stitch up the trees,
tripping over
the end of time.
Could it be jubilant
to come apart?
Earth to fire to air
in a brilliant instant,
nuclear alchemy
splitting the bone.
I try to remind myself
how petty we are
in the face of life’s evaporation.
Captured by tides:
resistance // embrace.
An ocean growing slowly between us.
Spouting from secret wells,
glimpses of terror
at 2:30 p.m.: will you leave will you
love will you believe in me even now.
These small stakes break us,
make sure we don’t hear
the winds beginning
to pick up, the light shifting,
the branches cracking.