Next time we’re sixteen

Five miles apart, on the phone all night,

Whispering as we turn off the lights,

When we hate to say goodbye

I’ll know it’s right

And next time we’re seventeen,

Lying on the dock on a moonlit night,

Rocked by the lake under stars so bright,

When your fingers touch mine

I’ll know it’s right

But it had to be now, it couldn’t be then

I...

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Six years, a social class or two, a religion and half a country between us

We found each other in a city large for me and small for him

I bought this tall, exquisite stranger a beer, only because I’d had a few myself

And found some courage there.

Was the moon full that night as he walked me home, and we sat close on the sofa?

My legs tucked under me, facing him, I asked, “What ...

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When he’s tired

Freaked out

Anxious

My dog Tito steps into his crate, draped in green and gold fabric

To look less like a cage, or a prison.

He stretches, turns around in a perfect circle,

Sighing in comfort

In safety

A sigh of a protected soul,

Dozing off on a velvety black cushion that he himself chose

When he sat on it at the pet store.

A year ago, Ti...

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Magnolias in Spring
A blossom falls to my hair
A fragrant pink crown.

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Dawn opens its eyes
Illuminating darkness
Farewell, soft, black veil.

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Wanting life easy but living it hard                     

Dons his sick kilt and has one for the road

Gone to repeat the story he’s been told   

In the bar where he hasn’t been barred.             

Scotland is playing, they’ll win or they’ll lose      

He orders a pint, the fifth of the night                

Loneliness fades and the world becomes right

An amber-flecked al...

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You watched from behind

As I swayed to the music

The first night we met

No network coverage

To cover and color time

The first night we met

No calls to remind

Us that we’re not wild and free

The first night we met

You called me “beauty”

While I saw beauty in you

The first night we met

Nineteen-twenties jazz

Silent phones, no texts, and you

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Arrivée il y a vingt-trois ans

Mais comment se fait-il 

Que vous gardez cet accent?

Cet accent, qui ne fait pas de liaison

Entre "les" et "oiseaux"

Cet accent, qui prononce "eau" comme "owe."

But do you know how to say "owe"?

And do I owe you an explanation?

Cet accent, tout le monde le comprend

Certains le trouvent charmant, voire séduisant

Cet accent ...

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You’re not my soulmate 
You’re not going to save me
But just take my hand.

You’re not my soulmate 
Show me your imperfections 
And I’ll show you mine.

You’re not my soulmate 
My soul longs to grow with yours
Different, side by side.

You’re not my soulmate 
But carry me into bed
Set me down softly.

You’re not my soulmate 
But gaze deep into my eyes 
Swim into the light.

You...

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I sat down to write you a love song

But I couldn't hear the music

Without you near.

I put down the pen,

Looked out the window

At the same sky you see

The same clouds you stopped in the street to watch

As they traveled across the sky.

You took my hand, I lifted my eyes

As the world passed by.

In that moment with

The wandering clouds

You wrote me a love song.

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In his dad's pickup

There to pick you up

You watched from your bedroom window.

He parked right where last year

The maple tree fell during a storm

And Dad called you down.

In a striped blue skirt and a navy sweater

You flew down the stairs

There he was, and together

You climbed into the pickup.

He gave you his hand

You were small, and it was high up.

After the mo...

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