Perhaps in the fading light as you fall
From the heights of the branches, striking
The earth, the yellow and purple helix
Of each leaf on your body will still glow
As an act of creation in the face of death.

Bract and seeds stroked by morning light
Will shrivel over the burning arc
And heat of the day whereby they part
And become illuminated to the core.
       I will know your body as my body: the gate
       Unhinged in the whisper of the wind
       And the animal cuffed to the idea of fences.

Each seed will be gently sighed out
Bearing witness as an infant in the womb
To the old world of blood bark and cyclic elegy
Before being exhaled back onto the dirt of that world.
       I will know your body as my body: the wheat
       Spent in the summer heat and the hand
       That again, burns it to the ground in prayer.