On Gratitude
These thank-you cards get more sincere each time –
Not that I know what to do with crystal candlesticks
but that someone moved enough to give them
and their motion moved me in turn
to put my gratitude in ink, affix a stamp and formally thank
my great aunt, my parents, hers,
the barber and tailor, bar-back and busboy
each passer-by in each picture’s background become a celebrant,
each stamp a solemnizer of the gratitude I feel
for gifts, for luck, for making it this far, for promises of more to come.
On Settling Down
It’s our special day, and as days go it’s fine
It’s good enough for me, and I’m good enough for you.
And you’ll do, as you’d have done unto.
And so proceed to winter evenings on the couch,
whiskey with honey and crock-pot weeknight meals,
to takeout and paperbacks, chores divided
and the kettle on to keep us warm,
To the security of tax returns and joint accounts,
my only fear that all the days of my life
outlast the days of yours.
But that bridge I can cross half-way
if I get there alone.
Secretly Ironic 