A New Panorama

And with the drowning in my ears
came a longing, a longing that
children should be shrouded in light
and kept from harm's way:
kept from no play.

That adults should knife the working week
in the throat, and dedicate
all their days to love, to art,
to softness, to penetrating hardness,
to swallowing, to expressing

the inexpressible. And with the sadness
came a desire to sleep and awake
renewed: to step out into crystal morning
ringing, echoing with new possibilities; 
all bears would be bold

and tigers would gallantly stroll
and pumas would streak the darkness
with riotous speed and swift
and the trees would hang languorous
and sweep our tears away.

And there came a desire: a desire
for someone like you, for someone gentle,
caring, patient, kind, interesting, interested.
And a desire to know you further:
to lock hands and not knock heads,

to climb into the embrace of a rising square
of air and ascend the series of steps:
each step a progression and necessary,
never to stop and tire, but to gasp, Look
how high we've risen: what views!