Cicada

Solitary cicada debutant

calling for a lover.

You will die a virgin.

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The Golden Hour

Every eve we take a walk.
The time when dog and I and nature talk.

With Plover’s song and bullfrog’s honk.
With rabbit’s graze and beaver’s swim,
rippling still pond’s mirror.

A bright full moon smiles down upon someone somewhere to the southeast,

suspended between the waning blue of day and indigo of night.

Occasional cicadas click-rasp in the grass.

Rose gold cloud punctuates the sky’s transition to the north,

and the dark, dark, green indistinguishable trees surround us in panoramic horizon.

Solitary ephemeral firefly lights arc impending night.

My soul is quiet.

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The Depths of Her Love

I did not realize the depths of my wife’s love

until she spent hours beside my hospital bed

while all I had strength for

was to sleep and recover.

Or when she was there

While I relearned how to do every little thing.

Or when she bathed me when I couldn’t.

I didn’t realize the depths of her love

when she attended to bodily functions I’m embarrassed to mention.

Or when she cut up my meat at the table because at the time I lacked the capacity to do so.

Or when, like a mother asking a child, “What’s Wrong?”

She wondered at my tears of frustration

at not healing fast enough,

or my weeping in gratitude at doing something simple for the first time

this time around,

like moving a toe.

I didn’t realize the depths of her love

until I experienced all the myriad ways she cared for me,

when I couldn’t care for myself.

And now, when she gets even more angry at me for smiling during her lecture

for doing something so incredibly stupid,

it’s because

I realize the depths of her love.

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We Think Ourselves Immortal

We think ourselves immortal,

until we are not.

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Before My Fall

Before my fall

I thought slapstick was funny.

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Your One True Love

What do you do,
when you’ve found your one true love?

When they’ve given their self to you,
when you have what you always wanted.

When you’ve spent your whole life searching,
and all you know is the getting.

How do you learn the keeping,
when you’ve found your one true love?

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The Fall

Among many other bones

the fall broke my heart.

It’s exquisitely tender now.

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Rose Gold

Rose gold bare trees

bow toward the setting sun.

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My Valentine

I spent the first 33 years of my life being prepared and then looking for you–my one and only.

Never imagining how good our next 33 years of life with you was going to be after all this time…

This year has been especially trying for us, only because life has laid me low.

But you have risen to the challenge.

I don’t deserve you.

And I am full of wonder that you had chosen to love and continue to love a bumbleton like me.

Did I ever think I would experience such depth of love and kindness as you have shown me?

No, and that is why, weeping,
I can only offer you my shattered proud heart with my contrite spirit.

If it pleases you,

live with me forever,

and be my valentine.

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Peanut Butter and Jelly

On Monday, I made her a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich for lunch.

On Tuesday, I made her a jelly-and-peanut-butter sandwich.

On Wednesday she received a sandwich made of peanut-butter-and-jelly,

and on Thursday she was gifted a sandwich made of jelly-and-peanut- butter.

On Friday, why is she telling me, I need more variety in my life?

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