Marlene

at the crack of the volcano
you are quiet
and during the earth tremor
you are undisturbed

yet when the folding clouds thunder
you coil into me,
afraid of something

- all the things of my life
slowly tumble into the shifting geography
between us -

I love you.

I am true to the words
strong and luminous
in the deep span of our love

- lluvia is the word
you taught me
for the sudden rain

darkening the landscape -
no geography can dim
my memory,

I feel you every moment.

you are substantial
and I now dream
the substance of you

moving with me
across the imaging of some satellite;

we are the two coiling
on the shifting land
under the rolling smoke
of the volcano.