Lingua Symphronesis

Eurydice & Orpheus in one voice

river runs through the canyon,
and I walk beside her currents,
an enchanted circle of sacred secrets
slipping from her mouth to mine,
the bearer of life revealing and concealing
as she flows to the sea that is not an ending
but a confluence of our joined waters.

mesa sagebrush and saltbush burn
in the arid heat of summer’s light;
four-winged chamiza rises in a prayer
to the cardinal directions,
each seed a syllable I once sang
before the world began,
carried now in your breath’s warm wind.

ancient winged ones, mystics,
alight from embankments with messages of joy;
I unfold them under horizon’s gaze,
reading their choreography of myth,
each wingbeat tasting like revelation
in the air between us.

inspired spike-tail heads west—
I feel the heat of that setting sun in my chest;
east white-tail spirit sings like sunrise—
your song is the reassurance I carry;
blue-eyed darner darts north,
resilient, dancing aurora borealis—
my compass finds true north in your laughter;
flame-skipper flits south,
wingtips still warm from the place
where your kiss took root as fire.

nadir spirit descends to carve kiva walls into earth,
where your voice drums the bedrock awake;
zenith spirit ascends a cliff-bound path into sky,
where our names are written in light
and the wind remembers us,
centuries after our footsteps fade.