When I saw you on the patio,
the wind filling and turning the umbrella above you,
and you smiled at me as I rounded the bicycle stand,
something like the tugging chaos of aging
and the aimless ripples of daily worry
fell away
and only sunlight stood between us.
When I saw you through the kitchen window
I was spinning lettuce.
And I remembered,
33 years ago,
the sound your dress made
when you slid in beside me
on the seat of the Buick Skylark
and all I heard was slow jazz and anticipation.
When we walk to the end of the breakwater
and stand in a lushness of silence
or talk through some tidal lock of tears
while watching the bruised sea
turn its pages,
then, turning home, I love that you always marvel
at how stars switch on
in the deepening dusk.
When I see you in the green of a garden,
or bending for sea-glass on a pebbled beach
or walking above the cove
leaning into time and chance,
I think, I never want us to die,
and then that great sadness comes,
which I count as grace.
¡ feliz cumpleaños, deb !
Happy birthday to Debbie!
Just beautiful – what a birthday gift <3
Thank you Clair.
Steve: I wish for all the women so cherished, whose lovers are not poets, that they might recognize themselves when they read your poem for Deb. And I wish for those of us, alone, reading these words that we can, even for an eye-blink, be unreservedly glad for those so cherished!
Thank you Mary. Your response is full of light, as are you.
I am one so blessed.
Thanks Joyce. I’m happy to know this.
Love seems to bless all those who are aware of it. Blessed by the theme and the beauty of poetic expression.
Thank you so much Raymond.
Happy , Happy Birthday to Deb, and many happy returns ,, from Chryss and Phil
Beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time. This poem stopped time for me this morning. ?
Thank you Ellen.
this one awake to the one is how your love is before you write. many may envy the eyes and words, the real person.
Thank you Gordon