February 5*

to move through
this life
in balance

i must
ground
to infinity

the cords here:
          into space—
                    those rare days of spinning crazy cerulean sky
                    those rare nights of scattershot light-pricks in the
          vastness of black

          and up the strait—
                    that slightly tweaked
                    horizon of flatwater

                    no land, nothing beyond

                    pulling me
                    on
                    and on.

planting me
          here
          now.

*Copyright 2010 by Luther Allen. This poem appears in The View from Lummi Island.