O to leap into spangles of raspberry/

marmalade/mustard – as big as sun/

round as acorn cup & barnacle shell

so like wasp nest/free floating

like sun – clad motes.

O to wear the gaudiest red, that of
lobster/ladybug/blood/poppy/Mars/
sunset, to open arms akimbo, torso
a sail, legs curled like swan necks
just before they jackknife into water
for beetle, hair a flame flickering
in air.

O to love this world/its light/soft
summer night/sharp January night/
belching frogs/ringing snow/crow/
shrew/drifting dandelion parachutes
spiraling like the Milky Way

through our whorl-tipped fingers,
before our moon-blazed eyes—

O to fall & rise, flash & dazzle

& drift, prismatic, dappled

with the loam of beam & wave,

wind & petal & star.