ALFONSO

Ours were the balmy evenings
Just two of us, languishing
Listening to your poetry singing
Telling me personal stories
Of days I did not know you
Before I met you, knew glory
And grandeur that comes
When old pains go numb
And I begin to believe again
In life, love, you, the word ‘begin’.

Lately I have smelled the season
As it changes, rearranges leaves
And settles peacefully on me
Here in this warm region
Which I have given myself
Like a gift as big as a county;
Living rural life here in the city
Shopping monthly, frugally
In this one bedroom home
And now not alone any more
This, what life is for.

You didn’t like movies or TV,
A constant staple of life for me
So I honored your preference
Out of deference to other joys.
Your desires were not ploys
Employed to sway me, ******
Abuse or misuse. I could see.
They were how you lived
Independent of us or me.
It was simplicity and homespun.
Thus our life together had begun.