When we were sat
in the Jackson Square dusklight,
stain-glassed and half cut
on forever-changes and tall boys,

you cried almost all the tears
and smiles you’ve had stored
and I cried and laughed
the belly laughs of love and newness.

We both agreed, this
was the first day of the rest of our lives, but
isn’t five years is a long time
to have not been living?

We lived fiercely in the latenight roller disco,
we lived ambitious when I tried to be French,
we lived terrified in doctors offices
and waiting rooms, waiting -

for the first day of the rest of our lives
was some years ago now,
long before ringed proof,
and I’ve lived,
really lived from that day in knowing

it’s you, always you
from the first day of our lives to the last.