A View to Wed

here and there
on the trees
some leaves remain -
        the repeated utterance -
we often stand before them
and contemplate a leaf and attach hope to it -
        the declaration -
when the wind plays with the leaf
we tremble in every limb -
        the avowal -
and if the leaf falls
hope falls with it -
        the repeated utterance -

falling to the day
the way a gaze is averted
turned to task
from avoidance (perhaps of being seen
yearning -

        the repeated utterance
        attached to things or to people or to love -

on all sides the night splinters
and the vow of lovers
is the only impenetrable hold
(a mask to deflect the terrors of disavowed eyes

the wind plays with the leaf

you and you
in the wind
or in the small theater of human heart

        the repeated utterance
a rite to celebrate the juncture
the brief moment
the set stage
an act of discarding the solitary
tremble of one cast as the lone eye
around which the storm thrusts

*

(from what isolation do we come to each other
to keep vigilant watch
over the holy union
to stand as large protecting trees
over the holding hands
and repeating names
(we build our houses together to spite the climates
the conditions we know or imagine
we hold our families to our neighbours
to be taken from the gathering peril
into their similar hands -

        I love you
        is the repeated utterance of the love cry -
to be together
not for fear not to tremble together not
to stoop in entranced comfort
but to take each other up
into the bodies of each one's fate

        (the chance of winds folding together
        as storm or still air