Would I say it then
If given the chance?
And risk the inevitable nothing
Would you

Give up all the unknowing and happenstance
To be with me alive
And for more than for this one instance
In mind

If yesterday was just a blink of an eye
And a new future we could hold creates itself
Would you?
Would you be mine

When I awaken, inevitably,
In the middle of the night, the black cat,
His slender, aged frame beneath my feet,
Accompanies me to the Frigidaire
Where his food sets waiting in a tin can
Outside of time and space and just beside
My next stop, the modest lavatory,
So good to have inside at three a.m.
On a winter's night, then comes to my chair,
Found outside on the sidewalk, improvement
On the one before, and sits on its arm,
My partner sleeping on the other side,
Stretched out on the sofa, infirm but loved,
As I graft another line on St. James.

Proffer
the moon, and stars
As love-tokens; I give
you dirt from near this undisturbed
rose bush.