'Urchin Songs for a Universe' by Kate Hawk

1.

Life forms appear on the sand
like warm blooded animals.
Like spinning moon blood that
rises and falls in the pulse.

2.

The red moon humming
like a hissing beetle,
walking on a heartbroken sea,
of naked black urchins.

3.

The sun falls down onto civilization
like a spaceship and hits
during lunchtime while people
sit and eat Watermelon gazpacho.

4.

The red ball sits on the horizon
like the ominous thrill
of a stranger’s hands
ending up on your waist.

5.

A million black needles
tease you
when the water rushes by
with closed eyes and an open mouth.

6.

Little spines make love
with pieces of stars
so the sky doesn’t fall away.
So the night seems long and soft.

7.

Someone dropped cherries
on the sand when they came
and made footprints,
under the moonlight.

8.

Deep in your body,
the dark pulsates
like a prisoner who killed you
years ago and can now finally die.

9.

Holy water rushes into the city.
I hold holy water in my hand
and borrow it’s salt for a minute
so I can remember how the planets taste.

10.

At the edge of a city the
tide breaks, like
like the fishing lines
of helpless mystics looking for luck.

11.

The sound of vastness,
is the silent clashing of
atoms further away than
your life a second ago.

12.

The total unity of the sea and sky.
All that travels above and below,
that nighttime swallows,
before releasing the gold of the sun.

13.

Emotional ecstasy,
when the harshness of space comes
and strikes your face
with dark starlight.