To Pam: On Your Birthday

You arrived here in June, you were a song for the ages
Your melody lept right off of the pages.
You made my days, my months, my years
Infinitely more joyful than all my
troubles, my issues, or my tears.

Your first word I recall was “wa-wa”
and that meant “I need water, I’m thirsty.”
It is a word I will never forget,
Because in reality it meant “I need love,”
And while I have felt your needs
I have not always lived up to fulfilling them.

It has been a heavy responsibility to deal with circumstances
not of my desires nor of my making
And for that I needed your understanding
For I am constrained by my surroundings and
my shortcomings do not always define me.

Still, I will forever see in you a glimpse of
what could be and of what will be—
someone who has always seen beyond the fray
who never gave up on us
and in the final reckoning
we will be together in the sun—
unshakeable—in a love that will last forever.