I’d seen love on the screen, written in pixels and
colors and scattered dialogue-
love plastered onto billboards and left to peel and
fade under the harsh sunlight,
their meaning flaking away like dry, molted skin-
love was seen in magazines, mannequin smiles
pasted in a glossy frame and frozen into paper
realism for all time,
just one dimension of the whole sphere-
love finds its way into all places,
creeping into play like water penetrates dry soil,
there to ferment or to grow,
to nourish,
or to evaporate-
your eyes, like starfire, peered beneath my skin
like a telescope peers into the soul of a distant
world,
and reminded me of the wholeness of
things-
what will I take with me from this place?*