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