A Beginning
Martin Higgins 

When first I saw your infinite cobalt eyes 
Soul-deep, clear, and cast on me 
In the splayed crown of an ancestral redwood, 
A falcon beaked its downy hatchling, 
Into the endless, empty ocean, 
That roils between heaven and earth. 
 
Your smile spoke of vast continents, 
Heathen worlds we would foray together... 
As a sojourning fisheman loosed his net, 
And drifted out across unforgiving waters, 
Current-caught and far beyond the fog-spangled lights, 
Of his life's small village. 
 
We sat and spoke our heart's longing, 
Finding hope in shared vision and waking reverie. 
While Cassiopeia shifted her ageless, starry gown, 
The night dome emblazoned your crowning glory, 
Novus ordo seclorum, nosce te ipsum,  
And, for a moment, the universe was ours. 
 
Through muted museum halls we wandered, 
Hand clasped, enraptured, and young, 
With two new hearts. 
But the voiceless portraits, the marble figures, 
Bore implicit witness by their presence, 
That seven thousand years of studied urt, 
Could not show match to my mounting joy- 
 
I kissed your neck, breathed in your nape, 
Feeling the visceral change, 
As my chemistry recombined, 
To incorporate you. 
Cedar sage smoke, incense in our hair, 
Clung fast to our bodies, 
Living altars of devotion, 
In a spiritual bond most fertile. 
 
Can the earth truly bloom about our shoeless feet? 
Can we grow together into what can be? 
Somewhere a mountain is moving, 
And I want to be with you. 
--- 
 
Copyright © 1998 
Martin Higgins 
all rights reserved ​