The Eternal (You & I)

The Eternal (You & I)
By JD Miller

“The eternal [you] and [I],”

Is a line I said last night, 

In a joke about a memoir 

That is likely never to be written, 

—While holding you, and standing

Right in front of the heater—

Without fully knowing the implications

Of what eternity would mean. 

But this morning it occurred to me

Like a vision of rainwater

Swirling a drain and crowded with leaves, 

That long after we have ceased to be 

Thoughts in the backs of people’s heads 

After our names are scrubbed clean

From the sandstone of a shifting galaxy 

You and I will still be

Like the light of a long-cold Star, 

Still chasing the ends of the universe, 

You and I will drift, quietly, listening 

To the rhythm of hearts, 

Beating through fingers, 

Across the waters, and to the outermost shores

Of eternity.