Her Smile

The Tetrameter Journal: On My Anniversary...

Photo by Jamez Picard on Unsplash

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Today is my wedding anniversary.

44 years.

My wife coming down the aisle is what appeared to me this morning, and I wrote a few tetrameter lines about our togetherness. Life these days is both lovely and hard, with grief and joy duking it out, but we’re good. Lucky. Taking no day for granted.

Wherever you are in your journey with love, I hope you pause to look at it deeply, clearly, and say your thanks. It would have been so easy to miss it.

How amazing…she loves me still…

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Her Smile

Eyes holding white dress memory, 
The long aisle, sloping down, then up, 
Bride joining the waiting groom, 
Taking his hand, her face shining, 
Preternatural smile, for him.

He's too young to see it, clearly, 
Welcoming his coming life, 
This woman his destiny, 
The great decision, writing years.
Her voice was strong that day, such grace, 
While his faltered, unprepared, 
The man of words with none well said, 
Rambling religion, his nonsense, 
So bereft of thick, wet being.

He'd learn years later, poetry
Teaching, of hands, the small of backs, 
The barely felt whiff of breath, 
The body's arch as longing's met, 
And the long grip of embrace 
Needed for surviving, loving, 
First one decade, then a second, 
Then two more, wrangling out the path.

Older now, still lovers, arching, 
Forty-four years behind them, gone, 
Time ambling as it does, slow, quick. 
Each morning's meeting a strong hug, 
Breakfast making kitchen dance, 
Evening walks, sunsets and moons, 
With kisses, tongues still teasing, sex, 
And the shared keening of new griefs, 
Breath harder to catch after hits-- 
Death, money dwindling, children's pain, 
And, of course, disease and decay
Announcing, against all good hope, 
Inevitability.

He sees her smile clearer now, 
Bathing in it with each new hour, 
Emerging into days well loved, 
More so than he deserves, no doubt. 
But still, he opens his tired hand, 
Receives hers, lifts it to his lips, 
Brushes her skin lightly, loves her.