The Empty Chair

Some men are no good at loving

Not loving as women yearn for it

But give them wood and hammer

And during long wintery nights

Banging and swearing in the basement

They will build you a chair

Once a man who had no word or touch

Built a chair for his new wife

Built it to last forever

But chairs, like love, get weathered over time

Now the chair braves each winter

Empty and inconsolable

Like the man no good at loving.

Bittersweet, But More Sweet Than Bitter

An argument, tears, roses, forgiveness, a kiss

It can take five minutes

Or five years

Or fifty years

To get to forgiving

Humility feels like losing

I have taken the fifty years

The five years

The five minutes

Kiss sooner

Tears dry, roses die.

Girls in White Dresses

There is that little moment

Remember?

When girls are free

Giggle-dizzy

The swirly center of all things

This goes underground for years

I know, I know

Where am I?

It comes back. Listen.

It comes back years later

Your dress will dance in the wind.