Sunrise in Needles

The earth turns on her axis,
gravity forcing rotation, revolution
about and around a huge fire star,
light years away.

And what I see seems equally magnificent:

centimeter by centimeter the red rock walls,
spires, capstone mushrooms touched by light,
as if that heat, that rising sun, is unfolding languidly,
deliberately slow
so we pause over breakfast and pay attention.

But really, even now, we move.
It is US that dances,
the rocks that move to meet the light,
the world that turns.

Nothing stands still, the fusions of atoms
a wild flurry in that star,
the rocks falling apart and sand blow-washing away.