(A poem after Dejan Stojanovic)

A poet once said, 
“There is another alphabet, whispering from every leaf, singing from every river, shimmering from every sky.” And I believe him. 

For the leaf teaches me how to spell its green name
with fine-veined ink in patterns like letters
formed by the hand of a small child learning 
to read a book whose pages bud, bloom, flower, fall.   

The river dares me to whistle and scream and laugh and drink
deep, hungry gulps until I can hold no more and no less
than the pulsing heart of all that is drawn back to the sea,
spilling past the edge of the horizon to fill what needs to be filled.  

 The sky shows me love can hold its wobbling orbits
even in the icy dark, even in collapse
galaxies burn bright enough to send kisses of light across eons
to reunite stardust with stardust

And I learn to sound out their language
in the ancient phonetics of awe,
of wonder   

-until I shimmer     
as they shimmer-                       

-until I shimmer as they shimmer-                               
leaf, river, sky                          
     leaf, river, sky                                 
          leaf, river, sky