Re-Discovery

In the coffee and cream Of campfire and moonlight Her luscious legs are like cinnamon sticks Stirring the heat of the July 4th night The fire’s glow Ruby shoes Slipped to her bare feet Full moon a spotlight My wife is a movie star at her own premier. We’ve held hands beneath the dazzling edges Of these summer constellations for decades Up North Beside Torch Lake The stars a billion light years away Yet here they are At the end of our noses Like reading glasses. We’ve spent hours squinting into the night A night just like this It must be a thousand of them With our eyes adjusting and re-adjusting From the radiance of fire Back to the black of space Face to face Wordless for hours Beer after beer grabbed from the cooler. It’s taken me this long to fully realize That it is we who are spinning And not that eternal carousel of universe Up there Slowing to a stop For my turn. She doesn’t look that different to me From 30 years ago Worn from trouble, for sure, but still delicious Like the first time I heard an album crackle With Light My Fire To just yesterday When I heard that same magical melody Echo back to life From an old fashion car radio. She looks beyond The orange rampage of my face To the blue moon veiled overhead Full and colliding soundlessly against the smoky clouds Her lipstick like heat lightning Pressed to my finger tips Paparazzi shaking the bushes Our beautiful four kids smiling like flash bulbs We hold hands for another summer For another glorious try Sequel after sequel.