I don't know how to sing this but in a whisper I can say how beautiful how beautiful how beautiful this all is
Bones
Why so tired, so sad? With horror I ask myself: how many times did I feed you broth of my own bones?
Dumplings
On Wednesdays we sit my foot resting against your calf under the table over plates of pan-fried dumplings and a steaming bowl of soup And I want to say how much I need this the gentle thing finding its way between us as we laugh and tell our stories of love's disappointment the children we are raising and a future so uncertain I cannot name it
This
This is what I want to say: I love your broken heart.
Now
Much too soon to tell if this happiness, lightness is the prelude or the thing itself.
Complicated
I hear everything you are saying
I, too, am a cautious person
prone to thinking it all through
But here's the thing:
it's not that complicated
We love with our minds, yes
but also with skin and tongues
and the soles of our feet
So if you are ready to love like that
Come find me
It's not that complicated
For J
I had a friend in college you know the one: smart, funny handsome, kind never breaking my heart but never filling it, either Thirty years on and half a world away we talk of children, politics spouses now and past I exhale knowing that he, though dear was not the one who got away
You
Yes, I think it's important that you do you. Just keep in mind that means you don't do me.
Death
There are deaths of many kinds only some of them put us in the ground the rest leave us wandering, wed and dead
Million
The world is wide and the odds are good that more than a million souls would know themselves lucky to be loved by you. Yes, even you. So if this one, here, will not kiss you deeply or want to know your secret names, then, dear friend, I implore you: Please turn and gently walk away.
This Verse 