Read by Taylor Mali

Oh, loved, beloved, you are dew on the jewel-weed,
sheep among the lilies. The apple branch. The rapture
of bats and stars and grass singing, warm as new wine.

You are

the loved, my beloved — light in the bone, tender green,
the dinner bell ringing; aprons on the line — yellow muslin
and green — you are the end of the world and the first unfurling.

You are

the love, lemon and rind. Soft pine, cicada, swamp and vine.
Cattails at the edge of the road. Blue-eyed dragonfly.
Moon. Friend. Lizard in the woodpile. Sweet surprise.

You are the sky between my arms —