Moving & delicate
                           we saw you
that time, fragile as a raindrop
                                                 you seemed then
shining & vulnerable,     in colors
we had not known to be yours,
                                                  rare, jewel-like,
but more alive than a jewel,
                                          grained & printed,
scratched by the finger-nails of the living,
                                                               a thousand
ways of life, millions, even,
                                              with that first
lifting of man’s foot,         heavy on
the surface of the stony moon-rock     we saw you
for the first time, earth, our earth, young,
fresh, bestowed on us as new,     newest of
all possible new stars,        even knowing you
stained, soiled & trampled
                                        by our filth,
all of it transmuted somehow into living sapphire.
emerald breathing,       topaz, carnelian      alight with
fire
             O small bell,      lit with living,
swinging into danger—
                                      where is our tenderness
enough to care for you?