some images

we have several images
the sky, earth,
the sea etc.

it seems like we once believed
that we came from some mixture
of the sky, the earth,
and the sea
that was long ago
if it ever was

it's not really
that important but now
here you are
tracing the outline of that tree
in the air with your finger
and telling me--

not really telling me
but we have these images--
how each branch comes up from the wet earth
and touches the sky and says
the end, the end, the end

and you point even further off
where the sky touches
the ground
over where the sun is stretched
like a patient anesthetized--
no
not like that
at all
but we have
these images--

perhaps where the sun is wide
like the lolling sea
a mother cat
licking and licking a patch of sand?

ok, you don't point either
but ages and ages ago maybe
someone pointed to the horizon and said
that must be where we were
born

but all of that doesn't
really matter, does it?
look i am
holding out my hand
fingers spread like branches of a tree

well, actually just my hand
held out
like i used to do

so why not wrap your fingers
around mine?
the sky comes
down to here too.