When the Earth calmed down
from the long agony
of her waterless birth,
She spat Fire, and certain possibilities emerged.
The bones of animals,
the fins of unborn fish, and
the blood of scavenger birds
Were waiting for shadows to become durable
and for dust to recognize gravity.
From the ash of Earth’s spent energy
cooling moss crept forward.
Seas of salt ate up shorelines, and
rock defined the essential boundaries
Of ancestry. Fire devoured
land to make it habitable.
All along the shores and deserts
and mountaintops, everything
developed eyes and hearts
until Fire was finally satisfied.