Life Cycle

We swim in silver, streaming, blooming

in winter light, shedding shells,

green and gold, breathing hard

through root and branch, cold air

gently buoying pollen to flowers,

cells dividing to slow maturity,

surfacing, gulping rain, born

of water, climbing through cares,

hands grasping, wings beating,

speaking with clumsy tongues,

facing the sun, fast and fertile,

young hearts racing away,

released, running, ripe and ready,

restlessly growing, forgetting home

as we fly, warm, moist and pulsing

into true forms, straight and strong,

swarming in cycles, dipping and dripping

with spent days, unchanging, but

decaying until we fall, flaming,

two thousand years and counting,

seeds scattering, breaking the surface,

diving deep, green and gold,

buoyed on hard, cold breath,

streaming, blooming, swimming in silver.