38 Another Poem for Another Year

I remember

the first time 

I said

to you

I will...

I do.

A whisper 

as if 

no one else was there 

with us as we shared 

with each other our 

words and wills 

like near-silent breaths exchanged, 

rings and promises, 

handheld future 

roads up winding canyons

like you, a landscape opening up a

brand new view,

a blue harmony on the ridge, 

a crest, a bare breast hue.

And I knew these words 

would hold us 

fast and true,

me to you

Some songs sound like poems,

Some poems sound like me,

And some days feel like dreams that never

go away like that day in May, like so many

days that came before we first began to

find each other, each, another person,

before we were willed and done

that first time.

That first time also brings back first looks,

eyes that glance away, can’t quite see eye

to eye as something keeps the eyes from

looking and locking because of the slow,

but steady dance two hearts begin without

any warning. Two hearts jump to a new

beat, a new rhythm, a new wonder, a

let’s-ruin-everything-old-for-everything new

kind of dance trance that falls into

romance, new lovers, true lovers finding

their way for the first time.

First glance to first chance meeting, a

matter of timing or circumstance, first

together, providentially happenstance you

happened into my view, then you placed

your head on my late-night lap cruising

down State going nowhere as long as we

never got there too soon because this was

our moonlit evening just like those many

still to come. 

And somehow we arrived at this place

called thirty-eight years since we first

whispered (you wistfully purred) our wills

and do’s, our first May 27 I love you’s, and

we crawled into the dark, sweet light under

the covers of meandyou and then

youandme was longer two.

May 27, 2016