Paper Lanterns

Your twin roots inflate and detach
as they form themselves, Arms
of golden battered skin, your bamboo hollows
Sway as the sun-split winds blow through you.

When you breathe, your heart is light too
and small, as if swallowed and held
between fluorescent sheets,
rocking on the cradle of the wind.

Up, up in the wandering, burning blue
Slipping away the earthen bonds, you rise.
And, with silent lifting thoughts, you withdraw
into the sanctity of space.