All Things Beautiful

I cannot put you into rhyme You would refuse to go there Having once said, “If you can describe love . . . . It isn’t” And you are the same I cannot dress you in words and do you justice Adjectives fall upon themselves in the effort And metaphors mumble in confusion While searching for comparisons Because you were the source of it all All things must be compared to you And beauty should have bowed when you passed Your smile was never like the sunrise Rather, the sunrise imitated your smile And when I saw stars reflected in your eyes The stars were made more beautiful Some men are correct to offer the compliment “You look beautiful in that dress” That was inappropriate with you and I would gasp “That dress looks beautiful on you” The standard of all things lovely lived in you And with a glance the sister nymphs danced And all was well in the kingdom of my soul And so it is now . . . . now that you are gone When leaves whisper about the wind I know they gossip of why I walk alone Why my arm reaches for the empty space beside me And crickets spread rumors across the night Even the streamlet frog grunts his agreement Because without you all things beautiful Depend upon each other for definition And grow lonely in the task And I am composed of memories, nothing more Repeating them like butterflies going home