A Grain of Nothingness

I have thought of you, always,
always, as a grain of sand.

What child's fingers plucked you
from immensity, held you in

an open palm? What sweet foolishness
made you seem a handsome man?

Science skilfully turns one substance
to another or I am silly holding you

above the nothingess, a fleck of stone,
the emperor's robes, the enchanted forest.

I give you back to nature's impersonal
dominion where you quickly sink and fade

to gray. My love is like tempestuous
waves that send you out and away.