my mother became a psychiatrist after
the rain came and went and
smiled upon the Earth in
immense broken silence. and I asked

why does the sky burn blue
and she told me
because it is a river and will burn through
the banks and move
desperately into the ocean
a holiness we cannot make sense of
that it is both water and fire. and it was
always both smoke and steam
where you can feel the chimerical pain
of thousands of steam engines from
the middle of the industrial revolution​. father
became a natologist after the world
birthed me prematurely and i came out
covered in blood and shame.

he told me the last birth will be
the same as the first / a bursting of the river
that burns steams and runs
moving through the mud of the river banks / it
will come from the flesh and die in the flesh
it will become the last love
of the earth and the first love of the stars
birthing the river does burst into
eternity.