To Consecrate a Dream

For Dana from Judy
May 24, 2008

Long before I saw your face, I’d memorized its laugh lines,
pictured your boyish grin, envisioned the blush of friendship
rising in your cheeks. I knew that kindness dappled your eyes
like sunlight on verdant water. Without ever hearing your voice,
I recognized its gentle tone in the coo of a mourning dove
and heard the peal of its laughter in a Sunday bell tower.
Day after day, I imagined myself steeped in the comfort
of your patient loyalty, and though I’d never felt your touch,
in my dreams your fingertips slid through my hair,
parting it like silken sea grass in flowing water.

In the haze of one summer dream, you arrived, arms overflowing
with honeysuckle, and though I did not know you, still I knew you.
From a place of longing, your eyes beckoned, cradling a brilliant joy.

You emerged from that dream in a warm and final knowing
to speak my name and gently usher me into this space called love.
Tenderly, you traced the lines of my life, sharing, with grace,
the burden of sorrow and the blessing of joy. Behind us--
a lifetime of waiting. Ahead--whispers of bliss. And so, I listen,
heart in hand, as you sing to me, your notes gliding—pianissimo, adagio—
through lyrics of affirmation, while your arms wrap me in an embrace
that will consecrate all the rose-hued dawns and starlit nights,
all the songbird openings and spring-peeper closings
of the days that stretch languidly before us.

Today, we stand at first light of a time called future.
Together, we sing a new song of love, loyalty and friendship.
Step forward with me, Sweet Heart, into the music of this dawn.