Tanka Sequence: For Joseph

For Joseph F. Shaw

09/04/1932--03/31/2018

TO HAVE AND TO HOLD

To JFS on our 50^th anniversary 

first date

he reaches across

to take my hand

in an instant I know

he will hold it for life

the winter sun

through a window

warming my back;

the lazy comfort

of lunch for two

               

if I could turn back

I’d revise some stories

of my life,

yet, the part in which you come

would always be the same

 

youthful excitements

long ago put aside

for comforts of home;

my books, my music and wine

and you in my life

all the years

learning the ins and outs

of a marriage,

the last chapter not yet read,

not yet written

Red Lights

Jan. 2011