Gift

to give you this
is to give you the India I love

to give you this
is to return the gift given me
in color, in memory
to give you what I love
is to give you my heart
a part that will remain
with the colors left behind
and taken inside of me

India

all those smiles
played over so much need
yet the joy was deeper
than any want

for joy burned quietly
like an unseen ember
waiting for a breeze of grace
to give it life
and hope

who knows how the Spirit moves
or how the wind blows
but for a season
that breeze
was you

How?

This day
is not large enough
to hold all I feel for you.
I need every day,
dense with minutes and seconds,
and even then
I would need more.
For each moment with you
remains a puzzlement;
a recurring, joyous question:
How?
How do I have you
and call you mine
on this day
or any other?
How is one person
so sweet
so kind
so sexy?
How are you
so smart
so beautiful
so funny?
How, I ask,
is someone
so fun
so deep
so alive?
How, I wonder,
do I have you?
How?
How am I so blessed
to call this one
my love,
my life,
my Valentine?

--Saint Valentine's Day 2008

Fireflies

Those two hearts
once beat with yours,
where I think
they became synchronized,
beating
and moving in rhythm,
like fireflies
twinkling in the night.

--Mother's Day, 2007

The Promise

I made a promise
years ago
to love you
forever.
Little did I know
how that promise
was more like a gift,
and its keeping as natural
as walking in sunshine
or swimming in crystal waters.

I made a promise
years ago
but it has rebounded
upon me
surprising me with its joy.
I’ve received
more
from you
than any man
is rightly entitled to.
You are more
loving,
beautiful,
and joyful,
than I deserve.

I made a promise years ago.
I have not kept it.
It did not need keeping.

--Anniversary, 2005

The seconds are a burden

The seconds are a burden,
so heavy
with joy
when I am with you.
As if each moment
is full
to overflowing.
I feel that my heart
cannot stretch that far
or hold up
so much.
But away from you
seconds are but a shadow,
thin, frail, empty things.
As if nothing is alive
or buzzing with portent
and possibility.
Like a cloud
had come between me
and the sun.
But near you again
all that depth,
the delicious,
heavy weight of love,
comes rushing back to me.
With a joy
so heavy
I feel I might break
under the soft lightness
of the life you have given me.

--Valentine's Day 2007

Party

So how’s it been?
This life of yours?
Has it been happy?
And all you ever wanted?

Because on this day
it seems reversed,
and kinda upside down.
Because we three
cannot help but feel
that on this day
it is we who have received the birthday gift.
That we get to have
the cake and the games
and all the joy and celebration.
Why does today, your day,
really feel like ours?
It's because we have you.
Because we have you.
Because we have you.

It does seems strange
to say that your day
is really ours.
A party that began
three different times.
A party
we haven’t stopped celebrating
since the day we each,
we three,
first held you.

--Birthday, 2006