stardust settles into molten core
immense spouts of liquid rock
seeping up from earth's fire bowels
glittering metal blood creeps up
into thick miles of folding crust
to form myriad trees of hidden veins.

the gods of sun and rain and ice,
they see the wild silent ground
swell up into peaks that taunt sky.
they pour sheets of fire and storm
and the rocks crumble humbled
to tiny bits of forgotten love dust.

ruptured veins, eroded, buried deep
in ancient quiet river beds
that leap and slide and dance,
their waters shimmering with masks
as they carry off my molten heart
in raging rivers of golden mists
to become the faint ephemera that
brutal time dissolves unseen
in the vast ocean of memories.