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