Small Comforts Part II

Crawling into your own bed
after being away
Taking off those three-inch heels
after a long day

Everybody’s Christmas lights
shining down the block
A small hand slipped into your own
while going for a walk

Water quenching hard-worked thirst
A toy from long ago
Dinner someone else has made
The fireplace aglow

A sleepy snoring puppy
weighing warmly on your lap
“I’ll start your car and scrape it off”
A fuzzy hand-knit cap

A gentle touch, a sturdy hug
The way they say your name
In a year of ups and downs
the comforts still remain

Idle

Morning coffee
by the bay

Warmest it will
be all day

Nodding to the
passers by

Gradual brightness
in the sky

Breathing in the
early chill

Relishing the
eerie still

Slipping back
into my room

Drifting off
til afternoon

Waking just to
take it slow

Laze away the
winter woe

No Longer Tuesday

The juxtaposition
of the electric hum
arcing
inside my body
and the
mundane task
of going to
the post office

Almost enough
to make me laugh
but not out loud
and then that adds
to the neurons
firing like
hummingbird flaps
behind my eyes

Would you like
stamps today?
He quietly asks
in monotones
that surely signify
his own lighting storm
beneath the well-rehearsed
script that drives his day

I don’t know
what I want
I tell him without
the slightest hint
of shyness
and all the candor
I have in me

And when he looks
up
He really looks up
and meets my eyes
and both our lives
are violently whipping
in the wind of a moment
that shattered the daily mundane

And instead of a chuckle
or half-hearted joke
he pauses
and nods
and looks at my letter
and somehow it seems
like he
gets it

You’ll know
by the time
this arrives
Give yourself time
24 hours is all that it takes
and by then
it’ll all
be alright

And somehow
he was right

Here, We Are

A hour or two
when I met you
to walk the trail that fall

A day spent lost
in solitude
and looking for resolve

A week or two
or three or four
when we weren’t sure we could

A couple months of
wondering just
where it was we stood

Damn near a year
spent facing fears
we couldn’t comprehend

The time it took
to get us here
was worth it in the end

Highway 83

Filling up
at the sleepy little gas station
just outside of town

Sun goes down
Headlights spawn on the horizon
blinding streaks of white

Sounds of night
Crickets, owls, rain, cicadas
permeate the drive

We arrive
spilling out like wine and gossip
lost in our own thoughts