"The Open Gyre"
What is it that draws us
toward each other,
threading your life
through mine like
yarn through a needle?
The women in my life are
mixtures of light and dark,
laughter and tears.
They are complex braids
spilling through my fingers.
They are swirling cross-currents
within a deep, swift river
and they are the fish in the river,
too, the beauty of dappled things,
their thighs freckled like fine trout.
It is a wonder. It is a gift.
Sometimes I have many women
thronging all around me, and
other times I go alone.
In summer,
days without rain
suddenly give way
with a paean to water.
I dance in the rain.
You dance in the wind.
We all dance in the storm,
laughing. Or crying.
My life is the open hand.
My heart is the open gyre.
Women come and women go,
but they always touch me
with a sense of wonder.