Alchemy

Not from nothing:
These words, these worlds; Nothing
is lost or gained - Transmutations
mix elements into new forms, words
into sentences into thoughts into
poems, songs, stories -

Lovers into life, which begets
lovers too; Midnight epiphanies
never said, only smiles and embraces
which alight new smiles;

Chain reactions, flurries of sparks, collisions,
swirling acids, boiling bases, the catalysts
breaking & binding & melting & coalescing:

lost old limbs to find new
limbs, bones, machinery bent towards
new, or old - reborn to repeat
until all new is old, all time contained
in us, all.

Life, love, thoughts, words, all
from a central ember too dim to feel - nothing
lost, we sparks from sparks, everything
gained, frozen ink becomes You
& I - Finite & infinite, in us:

--Matthew Stalbaum, 12/24/10

seeing you again

looking at you
now, i see only

the faint ruddy specks
of past blushes

roars from car
radios speeding by

as we stood on the
sidewalk, wondering

if hope would come
to fullness

and the night's memory would
drown in a moment

or two, so now, when
hearts no longer thunder

my eyes still gleam
with a certain haze

a foggy understanding
of where we are

or when we stood, when is
it all?  i've forgotten, its all

muddled in the strange
sting of looking at

you now, all that
was, and is, are you still

here, or do i see a dream?

--Matthew Stalbaum, date written=???