Do I See You Anymore

Lately, I failed to notice My wife had worn A new piece of jewelry I'd bought her. She informed me, when I asked about it, Quite matter-of-factly, that I hadn't noticed Because we no longer look at each other anymore. This disturbs me, as it implies we're Somehow beginning to unsee one another, like We slowly unsee the dead, losing Their faces in the slow snowfall of time, the turn Of years The drift of days. Is she unseeing me too, Am I growing a little more ghostly, day by day, Sunrise to sunset? Oh, I know the long appraising looks of youth Are gone; The burnished beauty of those flying days Impossible to turn the eyes from. Perhaps this is the proper way of things Once more lies behind than ahead, once All the wilder dreams are Safely laid to bed. Easier to bid farewell to ghosts Than to their fragile, living hosts, for who Can know what songs they sing? But now I think, though I Unsee you more with my outer eyes, The more I see with the inner ones, The visions of my memories, set beneath Our younger Suns, of you - Singing to the children, dancing 'round a fire, Of you - laughing at my puns, of you - Beaming with desire. There's a special one I keep Fresh, though over 40 years ago: I can see it in my sleep, can feel it In the snow. You - mocking the foolish preacher Who'd come to the university To rail at us for learning; You - a vision, spinning 'round, arms flung wide, Hair like burning copper, laughing In reply to him: "Do I LOOK like I'm ASHAMED to be a woman?" And I thinking, at the time, How nothing could be more impossible. That one I keep close; A golden memory of that ghost. And though i do indeed unsee Small matters, like the jewelry, I know I see more with those other eyes And hope you do the same by me.