World Enough & Time

Ask me to kiss you again tomorrow at break of day -

Bed-tousled glory and I sing hallelujah.

Call time a liar and dismantle all alarms; we possess the world and time -

Defer the day's duties in favor of playful laziness,

Ensconced in downy warmth.

First light's feathered fingers frame this still-life scene,

Gilded apotheosis -

How can I not stare at the art of you?

I store these snapshot memories like canned goods -

Jar-lined shelf abundance

Kept for wintering days when, exiled from heart's home,

Loneliness and longing pile in drifts.

Months and miles have poured an ocean -

Nevertheless, persistence:

Odyssean quest for home beyond salt tear waves -

Penelopean patience rewarded;

Quavered kiss and fevered embrace

Return my wand'ring mind to present reverie -

Sensuous and slow, I savor time's sweetness

Tucked along your curving, sun-dappled shore,

Uncoiling into languorous harmony -

Verse and chorus and refrain, we sing the stars from the heavens and

Watch them fall over our little piece of Eden,

Xenial light resplendent.

You made my heart your home and planted red

Zinnias for its endurance.