In an unsent letter I wrote to you
bitter words ffom an unnamed place
from a beach of a second name
black basalt spewed from hotter flames
lies cooled in frothing waves.
I wrote to you
in anger at myself, a foolish game
which being played was lost,
in underestimation
lost in the seriousness
lost in the heat of the inner flame.
The uncounted counting cost
earth you give us
a dramatic shape
support us, these streams and tides
these braided arteries
through ducts and channels,
these droplets giving ease and certainty
infusive miasmas of mindful love.
Cooled I breathe a local smell
an ozone ripe with kelp and fishery
from the second beach without a proper name
I returned to a common speech
how to survive in space
knowing our shared inheritance.
