In the Middle

The last item checked off Friday's list

I jump into my car

Head South

The desk clerk at the hotel

Knows us by name

Our little secret

We take off our clothes

Our identities

Our responsibilities

Giggle like the kids we actually are

Hide under the covers

Two turtles in a doublewide shell

Poke our heads out

Only to get a little water

Or burgers and fries

Come check-out time on Sunday

We reassemble our adult costumes

I drive North, you South

Count the days until next time

In the middle.

submitted for Magpie Tales, Mag 275

Twenty-two

I love you like the ocean loves the sand
The ceaseless waves caress and kiss the land
Impossible to separate the two
I'm who I am today because of you
Although we each have lives that are our own
Together we are better than alone
Two colors intermingled become new
Creating a much deeper, richer hue
So like the ocean's endless ebb and flow
Your constancy and love I'm blessed to know
As infinite as sand grains on the shore
I count the ways I love you more and more
Through stormy seas or placid swells we ride
The waves of life together, side by side.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, The Perfect Love Poem (posted late so my husband won't see it before our anniversary on the 25th!)

Dance With Me

Dance with me

Hear that jazz play

We will be

redeemed in the sway

Let the others make way

I deem this night ours

These few hours

In your affection

Do not be remiss

I long for the perfection

of your kiss

Let the others see our bliss

Don't miss the chance

Hold me and dance.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Get Listed for Feb.: Absent
and Play It Again Toads, Rhyme Royal

Play

I watch your hands

as you strum the guitar

Imagine how your fingers

would feel against my skin

I want you

to run arpeggios up and down my spine

Stroke me

Press your fingertips here

and there

Coaxing

chords of pleasure

Make me moan with

your music.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Sunday Mini Challenge, Carilda Olivar Labra

The Denim Jacket

The eponymous jacket

Can't explain

When I saw you

I was smitten

You wore that denim jacket

It was as much a part of you as

your right arm

Freshman year

That jacket was already

broken in and faded

but it brought out

the blue of your eyes

I loved how they sparkled

You were adamant

Either Led Zeppelin or The Who

I knew by the Union Jack on the left sleeve

just where you stood

A roll of peppermint Certs

always in your breast pocket

I tasted them

 mingled with beer

the first time you kissed me

The night you spent in my room

you left that jacket

hanging over my chair the next morning

You knew my boyfriend was coming to visit

and threw down the first bid

in a poker game I wasn't yet sure

I was ready to play

It didn't take long, though

before I began wearing your denim jacket

like a second skin

Singing Who songs

I think it's love. 

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, FB Friday, The Clothes Make the Woman

Us

After we make love

I will wear your scent all day

Better than perfume

The essence of our passion

I breathe us in and I smile

For Dave (written in 1984-EEK!)

This is another old poem that I'm posting for mindlovemisery's first Sunday prompt: Old Poetry. This one was written in 1984 (I was a sophomore in college!) and was inspired by the Who's "The Song Is Over."

We tried to write a song once
The melody came easy but
the tempo was too fast
and the lyrics were too deep
I couldn't listen
because I had another song in my head
that I was afraid to forget

The two melodies got mixed up
and I couldn't hear either one clearly
So I stopped writing our song
and tried to forget how it sounded

But every so often
when the music got too mellow
I'd think about the song we started
and wonder how it would've turned out
if I had taken the time to finish it

I tried so hard not to hear it
but I couldn't get the tune out of my head
The notes kept coming back to me

Then I realized they were coming
from you
You wouldn't let the song end
You sang it softly
but I heard the tune
I found myself singing along
and wanting to write again
But this time, the tempo flowed naturally
and the lyrics were soothing
and the melody is always easy.

Timbre

source

You know me by heart

No need for sheets

You read me with your fingertips

The stroke of your hands

coaxes me to life

We know what novices don’t~

Well-worn instruments

have the richest timbre.

Time

watercolor by Micael Chadwick

Time melts like

Watercolors in a painting

Easing into itself, indistinct

Numinous memories drift

Tides toward the shore

You and I

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Out of Standard With Izy, Climate Free Friday
and for David's and my 20 year anniversary on April 25

Let's Go

Spring, 1935 by Kuzma Petrov-Vodin

Let's go to a place where it's just we two,

Where the rest of the world is small

Doesn't have to be fancy or hard to find,

Just some place where we can recall

The good we are blessed with when every day

 I love you and know you love me

No matter how difficult life has become,

It's easier as part of "we"

After some time we'll go back to the world,

Back to the stress and the pain

We'll help where we can and do what we must

Until we're together again.

submitted for Poets United, Verse First, Wake Up and Love and

The Mag, Mag 164 and

Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Encouragement

Love

Eternal Love Locks, Pont de l’Archevêché,  photo by Susan

Forgiveness is a part of

Love

Pushing through after the mistakes-

A branch breaks

In time, corrects the wrong

And still grows strong

You and I will always belong

Together, like autumn and spring

Whatever the fates may bring

love: a branch breaks and still grows strong. 

submitted for Poetic Bloomings, In Form Poet, Ovillejo
and Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, First and Last Lines, What is Love?

and Poets United, Verse First, Committed

The Mix Tape of Us

Charlotte Gainsbourg, AnOther

The other day 

I found myself singing

one of those songs

Do you remember?

We were freshmen

I played my records 

window open

waiting

for you to swim by

I cast out notes as bait

to draw you to me

"I love that one!" you'd say

 I'd act nonchalant- "Really? Cool."

Really cool

Playlist as love potion

I remember

my heart flip flopping

 like a fish on the deck of a boat

when you noticed

and sinking like the Titanic

when you didn't

Sometimes even now

a beat sneaks up on me

and I find myself singing

(despite myself)

from the mix tape of us.

submitted for The Mag, Mag153

Tapestry

Like a tapestry

we knit ourselves together

hand over hand

word over word

Even the odd strands that hang

loosely, fraying

Tucked adeptly into the weft

to form texture, pattern

Time is a patient weaver

its cloth strong

beautiful.

submitted for The Mag, Mag152

You Are the Song I Can't Get Out My Head

image source

I fell for you when we first met

You followed me to bed

Your gentle voice, the notes I heard

Were playing in my head

So kind

Thereafter on my mind

Your words

In winter are my flame

The years can pass; I won’t forget

The music in your name.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Sunday Mini Challenge