Firewalk

In La Rambla Granatilla south of Mojcar

Mica glitters beneath your feet.

Everything you have been taught

Falls away, echoing.

Monolithic, multicolored walls stretch

To form a canyon

Opening to the sea. Where have you

Been

That loneliness cannot follow, where

Thoughts cannot strike flint against your heart?

A ship edges over

Glassy waves. Strange green pods

Dangle alongside filmy leaves.

From the bushes, you hear

The liquid clicks of a shutter.

A trick with a rock we are trying to learn:

Cover the hand

With a round stone then rest another's palm

On top. In between, the rock holds steady,

The worlds of origin recede

For a long moment and anything is possible.

You choose to rub the iridescence

Between your palms, staining

Your grip with the juice of the sun.

Your hands shimmer like fishes, swimming

Ashore or walking toward the horizon.

The chirp of the gray and yellow tit pauses

Then the shutter clicks. You turn your

Head and see la rambla on fire, the sun

Hammering sparks just before it dies.