Five days before your birthday every year
Your father’s birthday came first.
Nine days before your birthday
Your father’s life ceased with his last breath.
As your birthday approaches those memories
Surface again happy and sad mixed together
The turns and twists of the times of your life
How the years change us and the world.
Being with you next to me sharing your life
Affected by your feelings as you are mine
Perhaps even melding into the same biome
It’s good that we get along so well.
This perfect summer day is ours
Getting out in the cool morning air
The cloudless blue sky expands to infinite reach
We glide in the breeze on our bikes.
This timeless trip through the shaded woods
Following the splashing stream past the mergansers
Ends in the town park by the pollywog pond
Returning home under cumulus cloud thermals.
You look in the mirror and see signs of age
But I see a fit body and a sympathetic self
A kind person who still enjoys a good laugh
The kind of person I want to be with.
