In the Beginning

Leila
Einhorn

Naked, you tend the pearl.

Naked, you make the room
melt into riverbeds, smoothed stone.

Yes, this must be
how the universe felt
when it first cracked open;

Sky and earth parting as lips
to breathe out trees, mythology,
the first days of fall.

It is mud between your bare toes-

It is raspberries plucked straight from the stem,

and it holds you
like a butterfly to a board,
breathless at its beauty.