from my childhood neighborhood
Bathed in blushing light, I do not dwell
upon death for the first time in weeks.
Instead, I let the atoms of my body
make cosmic love to the sidewalk shadows,
a strange sensation of fulfillment soaring
past the treetops of this miniature world.
I welcome it— these rare quietudes—
where I can lay my armor down
and think of nothing else beyond
the forgiveness of sun
on living skin.
