Earth is black with secret red
Flowing with dark molten iron
A pulsing of the heartbeat’s blood;
Heaven, black with shining gems
Flower-strewn and rainbow-prismed,
Velvet depths in endless flood;
The silver-twining open road
From ferrous heart to shadow’s sun –
The partner to the kiss of worlds,
A lover’s breath, a dance begun.
Iron is the blood of the earth
The red sweat of its bones
The last explosive breath
Of dying stars
Giving their metal hearts to the universe.
Iron, holy,
Spattered droplets across heaven
Sky-metal, earth-metal:
The tree spans all worlds
From the fire in the earth
To the fires in the sky.
Your bones sweat blood
Iron-red, made of skyfire,
Life and death
Of stars and men.
This iron tooth,
Many-folded,
Whorled like a dance of cells:
Your cousin,
A drop of blood,
From star-death to earth-life
Predator-pointed,
Cuts the grape from the vine.
And look:
The fruit also bleeds.
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