Monday, December 25, 2017

AT THE COUNTRY WEDDING ~








At The Country Wedding






They don’t tinkle

Champagne glasses

With their spoons here

And only the old folks

Are sitting down.

A country western group

Has lugged its equipment upstairs,

And later today and into the evening

This young married couple

Will learn the sweet

And rotten joys

From the masters of it —

Dancing fathers and mothers,

Lonesome aunts and yodeling uncles.

But for the moment

Paper plates are heaped with

Homemade ham, biscuits and beans

And all a few people want

Is a kiss,

So tapping on the side

Of a beer bottle with a knife

Quiets the whole grange hall down

Into love.










Pacific





Lovelier —

When the

Bandana from

My pocket is

Worn around

Her neck










Sand Dollar






We’ve waited all year

And traveled all morning

Just arrive like this —

In the very same place

We were a year ago today.

And you are just as beautiful,

Your long skirt blowing in sand,

As we walk for miles along

The edge of the leaving tide

Picking up seashells and stone

That we’ll select more carefully

The longer we are here —

Which is no place with a name,

Except someplace in our heart.

Where that day, unlike any other,

You found excitedly a sand dollar

Washed in during the night,

Left in a tidal pool, and

Kneeling while taking it up,

Placed it home in my hand.









Picture






I remember you

The only person

For miles standing

In the Athabasca River

Because you wanted to

Warm late October day

South of Jasper

Sandals in your hand

White-checkered dress

Just off the roadside

Car waiting and you

Freezing for a moment

In the water melted

Out of the surrounding

Mountains of snow



————————————

BOB ARNOLD
I'm In Love With You
Who Is In Love With Me
Longhouse 2012