An Elemental

.

In the beer-garden
on her way back to
South Africa
Eealohna
sits talking over the bleached
wooden deck
rising
and dissolving
into stream-gravel

Pahn’s arms
extend
a wooden frame
to catch and hold
her falling
alluvium
He
carries her to
the table
where
he lets loose her pebbles
to scatter

Going back
to the bleached bench
Gendenwitha
appears
in her place…

…as the professor
leads the class
in a tour of the campus
they laugh
and cavort

admitting
their joy in each other

and when it is time
to sleep
they lie together

…

During the night
he holds her like a child

At some point
she sits up
afraid

and he protects her
from his doubts
in the curve
made
by his stomach
and his thighs
leaning up
to hold her

…

In accepting sleep
and startling from it
she has been taken
again
to the firmament

and Eealohna
is again
in the pool rack

triangular now

Then lifting her stones
pointing at the sky
the tip narrows
with awakening

and he reaches
down
to her
there
where she has become

the delta

.

.