Love Song To A Husband

All these years
we’ve worked to look
each other in the eyes—
to not look away at the times
when the gruesome details
made us want to turn and run
toward some other truth.

That’s what honest love is
after all.

We’ve carried that burden of proof
all these years
innocent of playing guilty games
in secret places
where no one touches
anyone else.

We have been pioneers
in our own way
coming to the land
where our sons might grow
strong and brave among the trees
and hard granite ledges—
Walking the steep paths
ourselves—taking the hand of the moon
when we felt our feet slipping.

Today I stand before you,
before Cupid asks me again
if he should throw an arrow
at the broad target
of your heart,
to tell you that this is the best
I will ever be.

This is the harvest season of the essence
of my beautiful flower self,
where I must stand
open to the promise
of the widest skies.

Today, and every day after today,
I will let the bees come
and take all my love.

That will be the way
I will leave you, husband—

on the lips
of the hungry faces
of insects
who will never know
my real name.