Nataraja

You dance upon the earth,
twirling lace colors like fire-
fighting the air for attention
with feet marching into the ground
and each soft stomp your command
to make new every goddamned minute
with eyes closed to a sea beyond
what’s made by the wave of each arm
that to dance is to snake among
the starlight, to be a god
of this destructive waltz,
a death in every twirl,
a birth in the lively gaze
when your eyes meet the karmic wheel
of the world.