make a wish, and blow
make a promise, and remain
grounded through the storms

uninvited, he
held his ground perched on a bush;
I slithered indoors

To my Dad
in celebration of his
seventy-five years:
devoted,
steadfast,
hard-working,
heroic,
always
our rock
in stormy seas
and in calm waters.

remember when it was
just us?
when nothing else
mattered,
not the date
or the time
or the agenda
or the menu
or the wireless signal
or the politics?
remember when
I sneezed
and you said
God bless you
and there were no
echoes?
remember when time
stood still and you
stayed awake
and we both had enough
energy for anything
but we didn't bother
with most other things?
remember how
everytime one of us
said I love you
the other one said more
and we'd go back and forth
and back and forth
like that until
we made kids?
we used to be
just us
without the weight
of the whole world.

one of my favorite poems
was written by a son
to his mother
and in it

he said that
her hair
smelled like lilacs

if my son ever
wrote a poem
about me it would say
that I
smelled like chocolate

and that wouldn't quite
be the same,
would it?

like a butterfly
with wings outstretched, dogwood
blossom awaits flight

early morning, just
before the rain is when my
soul knows gentle calm