I love you like the sky loves vultures
granted a life of gentle updrafts
drifting as feathers and bone across stained glass sky
breathing in a supper that waits patiently at the roots of a hickory tree
Bowing heads as introductions are made
Welcome to what is left of life after life
Welcome to sustenance and damp fur
Mushrooms and rot silver threads connecting what you were
with everything that is
still
moist dark soil slowly emerging made beautiful by the work of beak and talon
By spore and volva
Unfolding under dark canopies
Living lightning strikes deep underground connecting every living beat
You are the reminders of what waits
of our place
golden satin strings of pearls
It all comes tumbling down
Where waiting with heads bent patiently they stand at the intermission
Of the first act
And the second