Us, apart-

Seven billion loose ends of string

Bordering a roughly knitted quilt,

Pieces left unstrung, forgotten,

Maiden hand moving on.

A mile’s length of sand

On charred, abandoned beach,

Each grain a lonely planet

Among a universe filled with too many more.

But us, together-

Thirty thousand strands woven tightly in a knot,

Thirty thousand knots embroidered into a design,

Each miniscule length of string

Only a piece of something greater.

We are a writhing, heaving mass,

A thundercloud marching across angry skies,

Not seven billion drops of rain

But a single pattern dancing in the air.