Sea Otters hold paws before bed

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Words: Matthew Burke
Tags: Poetry

Sea Otters hold paws before bed, so that we don’t drift apartupon the ocean of our dreams.

We find a shared tide, turn onto our backs, wrap ourselves snugly in the common undertow; pause together in the moving stillness of floating. The sea is dimpled with rain, each globule a galaxy, wet stars soaking into our fur, planets landing around us, histories coming home.

The Universe is raining Time.

Our quick eyes and spare paws trace a million images – rapid and precious –as molecular mirrors fall through an instant’s clarity before joining the heaving amoeba beneath us. I catch a gas planet in my padded palm, revolving between two extended claws,an ancient maroon marble, murmuring from within its glass case. She squeezes my paw as a crystal meteor lands in the tiny space between us, stretching for amoment into a liquid timeline that tickles our furry tummies with fluid notes of evolution,her agile feet making a sounding board of the surface, moving us in a swift circle, The Waltz of Creation.

Though infinities patter on my eyelids, it’s her breathing that invents my dreams.We float on the magnetism of new solar systems, buoyed by glowing worlds, moved alongby the turning of huge, unhurried wheels. Tethered by her strength, I let myself go into orbit

Our joined paws are a water gaugefor Eternity.

We’ll take a reading when we wake.