love song & maroochy river

footprints trail your red heels.

I follow you & we traverse

flatland’s wind-wrinkled skin.

this day not even a blink

for long-lived sand.

with you, I am immortal

wind on the flatland & I stir 

the world’s every strand.

I dry your hair & trail sun-warmed

fingers through the strands,

I swallow your voice

& bear your lush song

over the river we crossed,

that earthly boundary

before I grew out of my skin,

before the world grew

larger & newer & lovelier

with you. I sing to you

in the primordial voice of the earth

riper than our fledgling bird-call,

your laugh a singular sound

a pearl cupped in my palms.

I wear your soft words strung

beside my heart. lover, listen

to the wind—listen to the stir

in the glowing hollow of your chest.