11.      When you poke light through the stars

Connected in secret with all of the matter underneath,

a web forms that holds the light in suspension

and guides its movement.

It’s the trace of the breath of the start of everything,

and it surrounds us

and we can’t see it.

But can hear it and feel it in the echo of

the space behind the sternum

at the base of the belly

that twists when we exhale. We can feel each other there.

The silence is as old as the universe and ever expands

to connect every

that has ever existed, in how

we exist.

When the echo sounds I lift my eyes and look

at a 45 degree angle towards the sky

or the ceiling

or wherever that gaze falls and

almost can see your eyes looking in the same direction.

Maybe at a different part of the day,

maybe when we’re sleeping.

It’s the same, though, our patterns and movements

cut from different cloths but clothed in the same stillness and

breathe in breathe out breathe in breathe out-

can you feel the stillness echo at the same time your chest moves?

and all of the images of life that we attach with each other

flood into view

as a movie reel with a bittersweet theme.

It’s that echo

resonating throughout our bodies and all of the dark matter,

only dampened, temporarily, when we become distracted

by the starlight

hoping the memory stays alive long enough

until we meet again.