a flower drawn on paper

a flower drawn on paper

then redrawn on a sheet of copper

then cut out of that close to the edge of the petals

and hammered until it’s puffed into three dimensions

and blushing like it’s in love

life’s a fractal of similar but different iterations

spiraling us on a tightening trajectory

according to a golden ratio that balances us with what else

off on the edge of my hometown

off on the edge of my marriage house’s block

off on some edge of a state agency I visited a lot

I’m cutting along all those curves

to hold a thing of beauty in my hands

that was designed by a dance across time and distance

with a counterpart I’d eventually meet

to redraw this shape again and again together arm in arm