slowly
as liquid
you came and stirred the places
that slept

quiet
rising like steam
those spaces
still
and thick
no sound

breathing
your story
35 days without bathing
deep in holy mountains
stumbling upon waterfalls and hot springs
soaking all day
in the river of the white goddess
the oasis

unbidden
it was me
you say
that swirled in eddies
gushed in distant rushing spates
there with you
in sacred waters

these hidden pockets
inlets
curving stone
are surfaces softened
smoothed
by time’s lapping
I want to be forever in their carving

pooling waterways
spill and seep
as I soak
in the haven
of your story
an alchemy of elements
the mystery of our collision
where we are sourced at the wellspring
offering oasis
in the dry