Luminous Debris

I and I
One says to the other, no man sees my face and lives
………………………………………………………… —Bob Dylan

When I confront a human being as my You and speak
the basic word I-Thou to him, then he is no thing among
things nor does he consist of things. Neighborless and
seamless, he is You and fills the firmament.
………………………………………………………… —Martin Buber
____________________________________________________

…… I spin through the debris of ages 
…… too deep to grasp 
but you are with me in this thing so vast 
distances lose meaning 
and time is neither slow nor fast

…… some spend years slicing its flesh 
thin as shaved salmon into membranes
so fine the fabric of universes pass 
without tangling warp or woof
……(though certainty breaks
….. with the slightest look)

…… others count and rout particles that nest
without rest:
……………………… atomic bábushka–Matryoshkas
of prosaic electricity
in ghost orbits
……………………….. being like us.
both here and there in bodymind
ensconced
……………………while others
fire duet lasers to catch ageless hints
of enormous pebbles that once dropped
into a ballooning lake of spacetime
stalking gravity waves of bygone quakes
like a Greek on a hill hailing Helios, 
marking arrivals, noting,
watching his horse and chariot drop
with precision, blazing into a wine-dark sea 
leaving a jetblack wake

…… but you are with me
in this vast shadow

i and thou among receding sparks

luminous debris
…… under eternal sky
…… you and me
…… i and i
.

Jim Culleny
3/9/18