The Light Years
Locked to each other's heart, floating at rest,
These lovers stream the night like constellations;
The throat a flaming pillar and the breast
A Milky Way, these shining convocations
In one brief hour reverse the elements,
And bring down to the earth the starry sky;
A single touch halos the shadowy hands,
And brilliant as the Pleiades they lie,
Floating like milkweed on the winter cold,
Resting as gently on the weightless air;
They will not ever change, will not grow old,
Who have flown out of time and wander there
In radiance that's counted in light-years--
Until dawn tilts earth back; a tree appears.
May Sarton