MOONDUST IN THE FOOTPRINTS
for Jane on our fiftieth anniversary
Almost fifty years ago
Armstrong landed on the moon
He isn’t there now
but we celebrate it yet
And since
the past is not the past
but in the moment we remember
I remember
you and us
I remember
SONNET 43 REVISITED
How do I love thee
let me not count the ways
Lists are for laundry
and for going to the store
One item more or less
I would not love you less or more
GENESIS A LOVE STORY
On the first day God created light
on the fourth the sun and moon and stars
I see and feel the sun
court the moon and awe the arching stars
But what of the light before the light
is that the light I see in you
QUANTUM LUNCH
There is nothing stable in this table
And yet
the ever so quickly spinning
nothingness
that is me
is happy this particle-wave
filled morning
to rest on it with non-existent elbows
and gaze and gaze
at the improbable you
STEALING FIRE
The thing about love
is that you can light one from another
The reason that the gods
were so punishing to Prometheus
was because he took
the last spark of special that they had
LATIN 101
I never learned
the past tense of love
Amo, amas, amat
and that’s that
JOHN AND MARY
John Berry writes a poem
for his dear departed Mary
and reads it at all the open mics
It is a lovely poem
about parallel universes
and all the other ways
they might have met
or never met at all
He tells me that it changes
every time he reads it
which makes sense
since it is well known
that you can never step
in the same poem twice
I hear that it is also true of rivers
QUANTUM LUNCH
There is nothing stable in this table
And yet
the ever so quickly spinning
nothingness
that is me
is happy this particle – wave
filled morning
to rest on it with non–existant
elbows
and gaze and gaze
at the improbable you
SERVICE
Every small town funeral
Church ladies serving tea
and sandwiches and cake
Love
through
shaking hands
spreads in quivering
waves
out across the jellied salad
VALENTINE 09
Every Saint Valentine’s day
one should write a poem
to their beloved
Not just to remind them
how lovely they are
and your bursting desire
to show it
But also how lucky you are
to know that you know it