Empty space is not always empty.

Energy can burst into being

for the blink of an eye, and –

I was born into a body as a photon

can vanish and appear somewhere else,

and be nothing in between.

My body meets an object

outside the sequence

that brought it into being.

Out of the blue

means cresting a hill under an open sky

after many days of walking, and –

Out of the blue

a ship! Out of the blue, a present

beautifully wrapped in colored paper

with its bitter history of trees,

& etc. And the speed at which time passes— 

Where is the weight of a child encircled in your arms?

You cannot tell the birch, keep your leaves,

or find a red-wing blackbird in winter.

Last week a man rose alone to

the very top of the stratosphere and saw

the layers of heaven against the darkness of space.

Even in suffering’s empty state time spilled before me.