I
Birdsong suspended
              caught in amber
as globs of 

luminous bronze
              drip through foliage
sunlight spills 

distills in champagne
              crystal. Whiff of
sweet pea perfume 

stirs memory,
              silt of childhood dream—
the clam and I 

had no eyes,
              empty sockets
gaped in the night 

awoke
              —rises, glittering plume
settles to stratum 

II
Sun dips chubby fingers
              in gold
                            deposits
gleaming on wood siding 

oozing
              fingerprints, streaks
                            echo touch of
light on yellow house 

reached through
              redwood boughs
                            to stroke
the wooden frames 

              of coral-print chairs
since sold. 

All the pepper seeds
              I never planted
                            in the front yard—
buried sediment 

III
I am algae
              and protozoans
                            accumulated
on ocean floor 

compacted,
              partly recrystallized
                            diatomite
in hindsight 

opal replaces
              the cells in wood
                            and the shells
of clams,
              fills fractures,
cavities 

internal play of color
              depends upon light,
                            sun refracted in eye
bursts into
              opalescence