Love deepened by beauty

Leaving the mountain track, we strolled down to the lake;

it was a still evening, neither wind nor nature stirring;

a summer’s day with softest breath drawing to a close.

We had already stopped conversing but hadn’t realised it

by the time we reached the water’s edge; there the high cirrus

was blazing from our feet to the twin mountains beyond.

We watched them, dumbbells on the surface, shoulder the sun

down through the gleaming chasm into the earth between them;

the sky darkened, the flames died and eventually turned to ash.

We had not spoken, but had become part of the stillness,

the sunset even; anything said would have rippled the surface;

we were part of the beauty; it began at our feet.