Things unknowable and ordinary

The Cosmology Of Matrimony
For JoAnn

It takes all of creation, a silicate divot of rock on Europa,
the trailing veil of a dusty ball of Oort cloud ice hurtling
through a vacant quadrant of nowhereness, a white hair

in the middle of a mole on the face of shepherd asleep in Tibet,
things unknowable and ordinary, every molecule vital in setting
to motion the scattered atoms in the nebulous heart of a young

boy who unwittingly summons it all to bear and bring forth the
perfect moment in space, time, and a third grade classroom, the
moment he, in the vital throes of an adoration fermenting tenderly

in the eighth year of his singular vintage, crosses the vast room in
a vectoring orbit to blaze before his teacher, press himself close
to the center of a star and say: Miss Galuska, will you marry me?

Joseph Gallo
June 12, 2006