twenty-one times two equals

me plus you

our first forty-two

times three hundred and sixty-five

(plus a leap year, there and here)

our days added up and down

like numbers on a three dimensional

number line going back and forth,

this way and that, and back again,

a sort of double helix that comes

and then goes,

twists and turns, laughs and cries

with hellos and goodbyes.

This forty-two doubles the age you once were when we first became two-in-one and then began to grow…

two, three, four, six, seven, eight,

nine, ten, eleven, twelve,

fourteen...

and all because you shared a little of you and I shared a little of me,

through mountains and valleys,

forests and streams,

through the depths and the shallows we

uncovered dreams

we discovered together in a

tub filled up with chimes

and bubbles and bare skin

from our toes to our clean chins

and we couldn’t help growing

our love everyday

and we never forgot how to love

when we play,

and to play when we love, and to love

every day which adds up to something

like fifteen thousand, three hundred and

thirty odd days that we’ve loved each

other through the thick and through the

thin, throughout and through-in,

a squeezebox, an old song,

something rings true

when forty-two is the same as

this me plus that you.

May 27, 2020