On My Grandparents' Anniversary

Maybe you were lucky,
maybe you were blessed,
perhaps you worked just a little
harder than the rest.
Maybe quit wasn't an option,
maybe fight was all you had,
maybe scales dipped toward the good
and lifted up the bad.
Maybe sometimes you were lonely, 
maybe most days you were one, 
maybe you worked hard until 
the setting of each sun. 
Maybe you were soul mates,
maybe you were not,
maybe you were satisfied
by whatever was your lot.
Maybe love meant passion,
maybe it meant grace,
maybe love meant watching wrinkles
settle on his face.
Maybe you shared stories,
pretending not to know,
maybe you took every fight
as a chance to make love grow.

Maybe you had secrets, 

maybe you still do,

I'd love to learn the secret 

of your marriage from you two.

Perfection

After a lifetime of searching for perfection, 
I finally realized:
she is the stranger in the too-dark room. 
She has passed me often 
but has never- 
not once, 
glanced my way.

Tick Tock

Time's running out, baby, 
look at the clock
no matter the time zone, 
those hands never stop. 
You've been given a day, 
only 24 hours, 
and with it you chose to see weeds 
or seed flowers. 
Count each of your breaths 
as a blessing today, 
and reach for the sky, 
be it blue, be it gray. 

Which Comes First?

I do not know if I love you because I need you, 
or if I need you because I love you. 
I only know that this- 
mad, passionate, extraordinary- 
makes the mundane details of our lives 
glitter in its reflection. 
Each small act of kindness 
paints my world in your affection, 
until everything I see is you.  

Paraku #6

Melody loves us.

You are the music in me-

Souls in harmony.

We Sleep

We sleep, 
wrapped in one another, 
using limbs we do not own 
as shields against all that scares us. 
Let my skin keep out your worst fears, 
darling. 
Holding you close, 
I am impervious to my own. 

Regret Nothing

I lied when I said that I have no regrets,

What life is worth living without placing some bets?

And the house always wins, that's as true as it gets,

Some clouds they stay black and some suns never set.

The best you can hope for is love in this mess-

A warm hand to hold and a life which you bless,

A back rub to ease away all of the stress-

Maybe a kiss or two, but I digress...

So maybe there are a few things I'd redo,

A few less harsh words, and a card game or two,

But each mistake taught me, that part is true. 

How can I regret that which brought me to you? 

Offbeat

Steady, my heart beats a metronome's tune,

It rises and falls, like the tide with the moon,

But it skips just a bit when you enter the room.

Paraku #5

Who could possibly

love you more than I, darling?

Who out there, but me?

Two Feet and a Heartbeat

So self-satisfied, smile so smug

Heartstrings impervious to pulling, won't tug.

Perfectly padded by imperfect piety

Comfortable coma, the consumer variety.

Easily eking out existence on earth,

Glutton for gluttony, adding to girth.

Ignorance touted, labeled as bliss

Millions are dying, we swoon: scripted kiss.

Two feet and a heartbeat qualify you to aid

Touch one other life- that's a difference you've made.

Lessons Learned

Don't ever forget 
that the most important lessons that we learn 
are rarely taught in classrooms. 
They are learned through experience, 
through trial and error, 
success and failure, 
broken hearts that limp in paradiddles. 
They are learned in whispers at midnight 
and sitting silent at daybreak, 
soaked in the sun's first greeting. 
They are read and reread and read again 
until the truth saturates our souls 
and refuses to be wrung free. 
They are hidden under flower petals and 
tucked between stones still salty from ocean kisses, 
and they are carved into the side of every mountain. 
These lessons you learn will become a inextricable part of you, 
until you cannot remember a time when you didn't know 
the feel of sand beneath your feet 
or could not distinguish the songs of summer and autumn rains. 

Yours

My heart is your home.

There is nowhere that you can go that I don't go with you, 

nowhere that I go that I do not carry you also. 

My arms are your shelter.

There is no wind that can tear you from me, 

no storm that will blow you from my grasp. 

My love is your courage.

Hold fast to me, for I will ease your mind and carry your burden. 

The victory is already won.

I am yours, and you are mine.