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In Love

From The Merit of Light Poems by Stephen Rifkin

By: - Sep 04, 2014

 

IN LOVE

Returning,
Our hair sleek, thoughts resemble
Little shallow fish,

And arms, resting mottled
With salt (your arm rounded,
Neat), propose
A harbor.

The bay glitters, filled
With recitations
Of light.

The sun visits, the gist
Of our patronage.

 

 

                            TIDES FOR THE MOON
 
The old war canoe lies beached
Over a coffee table.
 
The room edged with fire
Rests out in the night--
 
Bookcases, fireplace,
A Fussiner painting.  We sit
Shining in middle distance,
A couple of moons.
 
We esteem each other.
 
A birch log hisses.
 
We may wax forever
In the garden.
 
What if
Glass sky wavers?
 
A branch stirs, the tart air
Sways
With incaution?
 
You repeat my name,
Neighbor of your own,
Laughing; then shift,
 
Rising
Upon the mist
And above dark water,
Your hair filled
With a constellation of stars.
 
“Wait, wait!” I call
But there is history only--
 
There is mist rising
And a thin moon
To light the slipping tide.
 
 
 Posted by Permission of Stephen Rifkin, illustration by Wilma Rifkin  from The Merit of Light,

 

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