ORIGINS WITHOUT ENDINGS

by Kathleen Dudley

Tender lily shoots tipping out 

at the creek’s surface

touching air 

and sky  

life teams with newness—

Wet unfurling curled cone leaves 

ribbon out on tender stems

lushly engorged 

on photosynthesis 

and early sap flow.

Peeps and chirps, delicate as baby’s breath

fill background silence 

of earthy understory 

in oxygen-dense landscape

merging fauna life with flora.

Waxing of a full moon

extending her feminine edges 

in tandem of not only her cycle with the light

but in synchronicity with the Solstice—

both reaching newness of boundary yet ancient.

Long ago now, without beginning 

and with no ending, in my short lifetime

on and on, life begins—waxes wanes

tender—expanding—maturing—closing

only to begin again and again and again.