poetry

after the trifecta

after the trifecta

after all these days weeks months years
we still genuinely like each other
(harder to achieve than loving)

for this and all the other joys
that have come along with
these three main lights in my life
may I always feel grateful and blessed
even in dark hours
mine or theirs or ours

you’d never give up on me
he says
no, I wouldn’t
I agree
may it always be so

even when the road’s nearly washed out
and the lightning’s going sideways
and the rain’s a perpendicular blur
there’s always the distinct possibility
we’re headed straight toward rainbow

poetry

20 memories

20 memories

3 people squeezed on a school bus seat
riding home from Clambake
each skinny, saying
I’m sorry my hips are so big

lying on the floor in Hedge
someone offers us a second pillow
we decline
our fates are sealed

driving through the Maine woods
you at the Wheel
of the Spirit of ‘76
then waiting patiently
while I learned harp

walking to a hardware store
at the counter you said
we need a wrench
I grinned –
we existed
and you knew
how to fix things

getting used to
grey striped Peruvian blankets
forgetting that they itch

first backpacking trip
unable to lift the pack
I thought
I can’t do this
after a day camping off in the woods
Gary Snyder running through my mind
deciding
we could live this way forever

our sleeping bags on Mount David
you me the cold stars joy

migraine in the middle of the night
I called you, scared
you walked to me in the dark
and held my head

1993
EMS gave us free trees
we illegally planted on Green Mountain
our oldest descendants

standing in the field
watching dozens of herons
on their nests –
found magic

puppy Chavo
one soft ear folded forward
tail unsure about curling
red collar so loose about his neck
head tilted
listening

on the Molehill
in the dark
a bottle of wine
a perfect proposal
punctuated by skunk spray

starting our honeymoon
taking the backroads
to Pennsylvania in August
‘84 Subaru
no AC
who else but us
does this?

in the stillness of Lenin’s tomb
my glasses case snaps shut
the AK-wielding soldier
is not amused
when we escape
we can’t stop laughing

riding ponies in Mongolia
nothing but land and sky before us
hours later, back at the ger
muscles so sore
we must strategize
about how to
lie down

staking out your bike at Macky
then seeing our house
knowing it was right

crying each time
we met our
perfectly beautiful
healthy strong
sons

standing on the broad top
of Longs Peak with you
twice
feeling safe

finding Elk Lake
after all those years
sleeping as far from roads
as a Coloradan can

you standing beside me
for three funerals
and all that came before them

there’s no way to fully catalog
you + me
no way to save
every miraculous kindness done
or extraordinary experience shared
I have no doubts
the next score of years
we’ll love being together
even more

poetry

19 summers and winters

19 summers and winters

so many photos
of us
out-of-doors
grinning
the land’s beauty
humming about us
in every direction

what luck
to find another soul
who loves life
that way

and to still be here
together
ready to walk out
into whatever waits