- we see her first and think she’s a girl
- walking a road
- that follows the furrows of a plow.
- a country girl,
- going home against the grain,
- as the orange light from the setting sun
- causes her shadow to roll across the earth
- a great distance from her body.
- but she’s more.
- and when we get closer we see
- she’s wearing a kimono with long, long sleeves.
- she lifts a slender arm
- and the drape of the kimono covers the sky.
- with a swoop of her arm
- night washes down as a watercolor on wet paper.
- she begins to run
- and bursts into flames,
- depositing shoots of fire in patches along her path,
- scattering them in the dark
- till they resemble spinning galaxies.