we whispered together, in the dark, you and i. we didn't need words, just the murmer of our voices, the lilting of joy and the low tones of affection. we spoke with our hands, our fingers mapping out ideas, caressing whole conversations. we spoke rolling hills and gentle valleys, deep cool rivers and birds and earthworms and dandelions, sighed the ocean into being and muttered the drumbeat of redwoods and spotted fawns. then you turned and held my hand, and began to sing. a long, clear note that shone in a spiraling darkness, bright shining gold and white and love, and it spun and curled around itself, your voice and its beauty, and became a tumbling sphere of laughter and light and you handed it to me and we set it carefully into the newlyspoken sky, and the salmon and the mountain lions and the buffalo grass and the hawks stretched themselves awake and became the world.

[inspiration: toasted cheese]