Just before dawn
when the sky
is a velvet complexion

and the stars
have all left
their discarded marks

on the lake's skin.
A testament to
an abandoned past.

This is the present:
your breath planting
its mist across my shoulder

as we lay like spoons
in bed. A new day.
Soon we will awaken

to a wonderment
of light and color.
To the first morning

of our fourteenth year
in our marriage.
To a love still lasting.

*2004*