The Woods

I threw a rock into your pool
Darker than oil
Dark to the point where you find yourself hunting for the edges of your vision
to make sure your eyes are still there

But necessary and replenishing
as only water can be

And, as I knew it would,
as the rock fell to the end
it caught the most beautiful light

With every part of its surface, in every color
It caught the light of the world on the way down
And I knew I loved you

You are hundreds of little pools such as these.

Sentinels and listeners
buried deep in the woods where
sleep, and gravity, and density lie heavy
on all living things

I knew I loved you because you’ve been collecting the world.
It gave itself to you. As it slept, when it woke,
as it turned itself over

You are its keeper
It does not belong to you and you know it
But you absorb all its wonder
and inability to be contained

You are the places where things rest, and are held
and I knew I loved you.

So I threw a rock in.
And will carry you, and your quietude with me,
as I continue my walk through the woods