I'm smiling at you accusing me of smiling accusing me of smiling accusing me of smiling at how much I love you.

Before I met you every love song sounded empty.
But now, I feel you in every love song I hear.
New and old. On the radio or on my iTunes playlist.
Happy, sad or anything in between.
You are in each word of every love song I hear...

Hailstorms with big winds, trees writhing in breezes
Coyotes howling in moonlight, dogs when they sneezes
Alloys and carved toys, stone gargoyles with wings
These are a few of my favorite things.

Skunk smells carried gently on nocturnal breezes
Sly double entendres and tickley teases
Beautiful salmon colored sunsets that make my jaw drop
Smell of pine 'n cedar in my sauna and wood shop!

Dolphins and doggies and toddlers and mooses
Saunas and cold plunges and honking V-flying gooses
Small mutts and storytellers and Pixar cartoons
Crazy call of the Maine dark of night loons
These are some of my nurturing tunes!

Volcanoes with lava and magma all oozing
Cross country skiing just gliding and cruising
Receiving massages unwinding and unbruising
I love my collections of adhesives and strings
These are a few of my favorite things!

So when the wasps sting
When the bored people whine
Wen I'm feeling dispirited and sad
I just think of a few of my favorite things
And I don't feel…so…bad!

Walking this ground
we gather rusted remnants
pieces of a lifetime placed
within the hollows of our shoulders
and from the hardened blades
the bones, this is the place
where gorgeous wings
are formed

The night has its allure
The contrast of the light
Against the dark
Where faces become blurred,.
Intentions hide in truth
Walking in shadows
Unknown steps….
Leading to nowhere,
And taking a chance….

Misty eyes that sparkle,
blue in color pale
Sunshine in your smile
Gestures flowed with wine
Like a chameleon
You came one night….
And then disappeared
Out of sight….

Who are you?
Lovely lady of the night,
Black be your color
Blue be your life,
Crimson the sky
That watched you go by,
Never to return
From shadows engulfed
Fragrant dahlia a lifeless scent…
We’ve never known you
But know you all too well…

Your story is common
The beginning and the middle
At best,
But in the end the mythic tragedy
Turns its horns upon the beast….
What can we do the least…
But to run and run and run
Try to find you
Try to find the devil in you
Try to slay the slayer
The lavender avenger….

May you rest in peace, sweet child
The pieces scattered forth
In grasses strewn
with blood, invisible..
The essence of your
Tortured mind and
Myriad soul…
Many men have chased
their dreams of you
The blue eyed black
dahlia of the night

What prevailed is the secret,
Weary light….
Who begs to shine on your grave
Because in you, no one can save…..
But you haunt us far and near….
Like the waters muddy clear..

So farewell, oh lovely lady
Let the dahlia rest upon your hair
After all these years you are still fair
After all these years, we still do care….
Longing for your eyes that dare…
Shine the light on darkness lair….

You will never be forgotten
But your mystery remains…
Your epitaph shall read…
"She’s a star, a shimmering light,
And forever spreading, shining bright…."

i find myself following our old footsteps
almost subconsciously
letting memories make decisions
leading the way through lingering thoughts of you

while they may be seemingly mundane
they are increasingly significant
for it is not just a choice to order miso soup
or to venture down the scenic route
to our old curry house
where the spice would bring tears to my eyes
a prelude to the damp ducts that were soon to follow

now that the streams have dried up off my face
i take joy in the journeys in which i place my stride beside your fading footsteps
painting our memories in the vivid colours of yesteryear
as opposed to tainting them with the disjoint of yesterday

i will continue to do all the things that we did, albeit alone
for it is now as much part of me
as the bones that support me
and the heart that pumps my blood
slightly aching when a thought of you lingers slightly
but an ache diminishing with each passing day

you changed me,
you probably didn't even realise it
as you were papering the cracks in the fibre of my being
allowing me to grow as a person, a partner, a lover

so i will ride my bike down the mountains from which our love fell
down the steep cliff faces from which it never recovered
and i will mimic the thoughts in my head
through words on the cloud, as you did
sharing
caring
remembering
not least you
and the way we were
in one of the best times of my life