love #8: epithalamion for mel and nathan

Love does not look down
but casting eyes skyward
finds balance staring
at no fixed horizon.
It is unsteady
and exhilarated
a plunge or a step
taken, unwavering.
You are blind to the ground
fear half-forgotten
now that the object is gone.
Hands stretch to hands
cold-knuckled from the thin air
unnumbing where you fit together.
A kiss that is gravity-less
and your cheeks, your lips,
your breath will escape inertia.

Today is a day
when the rivers will glisten and flash
honeyed with reflected gold.
Your body’s dips and hollows
(aqueous canals of ear,
taut-skinned gut,
throat warm and silted)
dark caves flooded with echoes
saying ‘I love you’ out loud.