In the beginning

To begin like this in darkness

with only the braille of the ribcage

offering up a map

to our surroundings --

it is small wonder

the night holds such panic

in its wide arms.

Listen, to bone,

ligament and cartilage,

delicate shell of ear,

long finger of spine,

their beginnings recorded only in

a doubling of heartbeats,

the ear's sonar recognizing sounds

it has never heard before,

the water filling

with fugitive thoughts

from other lifetimes.

In the hush between time present

and time past

death and life touch hands

and separate,

join again in a circle

of imagined forgetfulness.

But we will remember this space,

revisit it as often

as dream can carry us,

remember the buoyancy

of its salt water,

our dance to the beat

of a forgotten heartland.

We will remember

our swim towards the light,

feel again the right

and left ventricles of the heart

contracting in unison

with the primordial cry

of the beginning

of the first day.