your promise

like a universe inside the palms of my hands
glowing in an orb of swirling light, it warms
my eyes, my fingertips, my very soul. i know
to let go would leave me bereft on a fierce
stormy sea driven by winds of emptiness.

so i'll keep it, ever so gently, in open palms
so small and yet too big for even my colorful
imagination to grasp, it mesmerizes me and
becomes part of everything i see.  there is no
longer a reality without it, without you. and
then it's not enough anymore to merely gaze,

eat, you say, to satisfy your desire. an obedient
hand to my mouth and i swallow--there can
be no going back; cuz there's no red, no green,
no hue without it, just dull gray misguided
wanderlust that peels off the weathered and
broken surfaces of forgotten civilizations. and

now i am full, of sweet honey light and your
goodness, brimming with the deep mystery:
i in you, and you in me.