VOYEUR

at the coffee shop
watch that man
speak to that woman
their eyes meeting
he whispering very closely
to her lips she smiling
of course they are lovers
see the way they alter
the space between
their bodies like

in yoga class
the wife unfurls
her mat beside her
husband she is
not pleased with where it
lands and when she shifts
closer to his mat notice his
body turning towards her
they are still lovers
see how soon their bodies
begin to breathe together

it is weight
that space between
a couple so much so
you knowingly walk around
the field between them it is
filled it is heavy we all understand
not to walk through it

it is their burden
and they are carefully balancing
their every move

*****************
THE PLANETS

i am watching the children
spin around their teacher she
is the sun and they are
the planets the moons

i am watching these
elliptical orbits
become even more complicated
when Neptune and Pluto
change order something that
never happened when i was
a kid but that was a different
time today i am watching
the children step and spin
in their daily rotation
waxing and waning a moon
circling the sun

a different colored chalk
marks the path for each planet
so the children don't fall into each
other as they circle their teacher

i am watching the children spin
through space their earth
pulled by the force from their sun
their moons their planets wedging
them on  predictable paths for lifetimes

my children are willing to trust
in this but question who first
sent space spinning
they wonder what the universe expands into
then question a theory
whose space contracts out from itself
my children cannot believe
a space once opened can close
and not
leave some place

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ENTROPY

you and i were in the same room
when the universe was expanding
we were there when our children were born
we were there when i finally squeezed out
our daughter's perfect body when our son just
catapulted out of me you and i were in the same
room when the universe was collapsing
when we stood around a Gurney signing papers
helping our daughter sip from a cup and then
smile like a drunk we were there as they wheeled her
into the operating room to open her skull
peel away layers of brain  remove a tumor
we were there when she lived sat up and read

we were in the same room today
i was imagining what force hurls an object
out of its orbit
we were in the same room today
i watched where the space goes
when the universe contracts
we were in the same room today
i had no sense of your presence

**************
THE SON

i told my children we are all some kind of energy
that when we die our tired old bodies decay
but we go on
i say
i will be light that shimmers off the sun
because i love light
and my son decides to be a wave to move
with the surf that shimmers in the sun
because he loves movement
and my daughter will be the crashing of
a wave that moves with the surf
that shimmers in the sun
because she loves music
  and  then
                  says my son
we will always be together

we have drawn the path
for each of our souls
we have just enough weight
just enough speed to keep us
circling around each other
prevent us from collapsing into
nothing

**********************
MAGNETISM

it just is
that desire
to breathe
your lover in
before you kiss

it just is
that startling bolt
that clear electric current
that need to go

******************
CENTERING

for years i looked at the milky way
and never knew
it was an arm
of our spinning galaxy

now i want to know
where i am from its center


********************
ORBITING

these are theories
constructs
ways to explain
these are our wonderfully serious
efforts to believe it is possible
to understand

it is possible to adopt constructs
it is possible to build a world
completely on imagination
even a dull thought
can be believed
if it makes us certain
if it tells us what we need

it is possible to live here in such a world
it is damn near impossible to resist
wanting to understand
to remain suspended

****************
if we would hold the present moment precious
if we had a god outside ourselves
i understand imagining this