I am still sitting there, submerged in water

As the setting sun slants in, watching

The coconut trees dancing in the wind.

Still lost in my thoughts, you in yours

Contentment seeping through pruned fingers

Stopping to paddle, to swim to chatter

Blowing fountains out of hands.


I’m still painting myself into a corner

As you laugh, your gardening tools in hand

Not quite saying, ‘I told you so!’

I still follow you as you tend to the plants,

Watching you trim the ivy, inhaling

The scent of flowers on a full moon night

Trying to remember where the stars hide.



I still listen for your key in the door

Waiting to throw myself at you,

There, right there at the edge of time.

In a home that still echoes our music

Our happy footsteps ring on that floor

The piano tinkles deep into the night

A home that is not mine anymore. 


Our laughter still skitters on those walls

Turning into wind chimes, those who live

There now, look up and look away. 

I still hear you speak to me at every turn

And I cut into cheese like it is a flower

Turning pineapples into gentle wheels,

Some things cannot be unlearned.



You’re still the same, as you look over your shoulder

To see if I am still there. I stay right where you left me

You will always walk with me. While moments turn to hours,

To days to years. And that hand clinging to yours turns away…

I still live, I laugh, I brood, just twenty-nine years older.