as if          mining silver
from the very air           that swims
            just above their
traveler-hooded crests ||

heads, meant for dreaming
     :
of the bonds between all                   distance .


prism dust ||
passed like
  the     swapped     civilizations    in     your
                            spit-
         from lip to lip .



ferried                   through

a
weary, unknowable path  ||

              outofwhich,our
[outstretched eyes form the terminal bud ]



-

it catches your mouth about to move
and fills
     it
with opalescent
tributes





 
it,

_

   stored and released


in the dna
circuits . in
vellum and
stone

||



in breath, body, and their respective undoings.


that which
keeps     
      reading          the stairwell


keeps.  and is kept.