GREAT BLUE HERON AT BURNETT BRIDGE

You took me in the sun
to your home-

town, to the tidal
marsh, to the bridge

where you jump

into me.

___

a great blue
heron stills

its gait


to wait
in the shallows

poised


watching for
shadows
to wend
the cold
currents
under
the surface

___

Once there was a door
that jammed
at the thought of itself.

You open the door
to reveal a gate you open
to another door—

The morning sun
slants into me,
a sharp fire in crisp air.

By night,
I was ashamed to cry
into your chest.

___

At sea, conifers climb roughhewn
rock of islands. Upstream, plovers

pipe the ploughheads of beaks
into mud for invertebrates. Can you

see trees walk? Can you see beneath
the mud, into the fishhold word

plover? Can you see a door’s
fleshhood swell against its jam?

___

the gulf


between

stasis

and
patience

gapes


awaiting
water’s

return


or the calendar
days I count

until


it is humid


between us
until you
jump into
the water

until I


again can
warm
my ear on
your neck

___

The in-tide will return,
you will

splash

, the drops
will kiss the earth
with
diamonds.


At home I open all the doors
to let in sea-liquor, wind,
songs of the birds whose
names

I have yet to learn.

___

& the firs cling
to their island rocks.

& the herons release
their jeweled shames.

& the world invites us
to stillness.