You set the table
making sure we both have
a napkin, two forks
and a knife

I spend hours
preparing a meal
that might be enough
to satisfy both of our appetites

we sit across from each other
I ask you to hand me the bowl

it is already empty
you are already full

You
always content
to leave me
starving

~

neath the cauldron of the past
i gave away my only heart,
to mine i pressed her body close,
our heat cooled only by the earth.
many years have come and gone
they’ve added to our dance of prose,
do not think that i've not wondered
if i gave this heart too soon...

do not think this mind didn't stray,
but with my heart no longer mine to give
it wasn't mine to give away.
yes, some called me a fool too young;
they are right and this is true,
i am just a fool, still in love with you!

i have known the warmth of tender lips,
i still love the sway of your dancing hips
without a doubt some lines we stumble,
words best unsaid instead we fumble;
yet still I offer you this hand,
join me as on still plays the band,
just you and i lets add more lines,
more stanzas to our dance of prose.

do not think this mind didn't stray,
but with my heart no longer mine to give
it wasn't mine to give away.
yes, some called me a fool too young;
they are right and this is true,
i am just a fool, still choosing love with you!

~

*post script.

for my darling wife of thirty-five plus years.  this i know, i've chosen well.

i believe our very first kiss was just beneath the rim of an ancient volcano... just the beginning of fireworks and heat!

The girl and I
were tickled by sea foam,
our ankles wrapped in
diamond studded leeches--
We are the
yellow-bellied *******
in a porcelain nest of water.

Our running is stunted.
Our heels are bouncing
off the beach-face
and we are distracted
by the butterflies
because they look like
flowers floating before
the orange
and purple bled sky.

The girl and I
are in love,
but we laugh at feelings.
There's a polished
wrecking ball
swinging between our
chewed lips.
And we agree
love is for tin birds
in a flame cage.

So tell me what you want to be
And what you think you need of me
For what you do
You will become
As habit makes it part of one

For habits grind and clearly shape
Rough edges smoothed,
some dreams may break
Then, from time to time
There’s someone who
Will melt or break a part of you
So once again your shape does change
Though it may feel you’re just the same

It may take another, looking on
To see the shape that you’ve become
So maybe that should be my role?
Some sort of yardstick of your soul?
But then again, I will change too
So perhaps we’d better muddle through
And focus on the spark inside
The flame that undiminished shines

And if, as said, that change is certain
It will never be the final curtain
So embrace the change in me and you
And love the flame that shines on through

She makes perfection
feel like
it needs
to keep trying.