26th Anniversary: For Allison

Itinerary
Not so long ago we two met--so far flung
from our first homes and our first hearts,
rose-bowl boy and dust-bowl girl spun round
in all new splendors, salt marsh grass, moonlit surf—
we kissed and loved forever. We lay that night on granite,
Squam Rock high above beach plum, salt spray—our talk rising
like your lips when we kissed. We sang out our songs full-throated
that night--our love cascaded: lullabies, mother’s milk, whispering hush--
school bus mornings, college loans. Together we two
have loved forever together for years now—hospital halls, the roses
of the nursing home in toddler's hands, memorials, Wisconsin nights,
the roustabout churn of the Mississippi, humid Houston table talk,
Oklahoma bloodlines. We’ve known true heaven in glimpses:
the Los Angeles coliseum, an OKC youth group, a West Gloucester sanctuary,
our Rockport seaside—God’s love there kissed us forever. Your arms are my solace-
I will love you forever, fully and forever enfolded together in God’s arms.