So simple, really The rainbow entangled in your eyes explodes raining jelly-belly candies across the bed. You laugh and our white puppy turns colors from damp jellybeans. I see you hunched over your desk Looking older than your years. I hand you a cup of coffee, offer A backscratch. You sigh. My fingernails catch all the itchy skitters. You smile and time slides down to puddle on the floor. We take the bike out for a ride. Snugged in close we pitch and sway around the curves, I wish I'd worn a warmer jacket. We stop for lunch in Hell. Laughing at old, worn jokes as if they were new, we ate our hamburgers rare. We meander the forest seeking game trails and I am lost. You look at me with that crinkly-eyed smile and say, be a deer. I look with hollow eyes and find the path. The moon, pale orange orb, rises as we wander. Hunter’s moon you say and I run ahead. I slip on fallen autumn: a leaf fight ensues. We are red and golden. Trailing leaves we wend our way home. Our Bichon meets us at the door on hind legs, paws high fiving air. She has chewed holes in your new socks. You untangle a scarlet leaf from my hair saying, Let’s save this one. Mugs of coffee in hand we sit watching the pup chase lightning bugs. Venison steaks sizzle, dusk darkens to night. Your hand warm in mine we speak yet never say a word. The pup jumps in my lap and we three watch star-angels come out and play. I tell you stories of constellations; You tell me I have stars in my eyes. We talk of twenty years past when we parted under the heavy burden of new divorces and young children. Tomorrow the grandkids will all be playing together. You head off to work some new wonder with wood and I to write a poem. We share ideas as both our projects take shape. We plan, devise and strategize and measure- taking ideas apart and reworking them. Your's a curio cabinet for a granddaughter’s birthday, mine to be a poem about bliss that hadn’t come together yet. Write about today, you say. I smile. So simple, really. It all comes down to bliss. |