To my buddy whose deerlike walk and flashing eyes had me nearly fall off a chemistry lab bench 38 years ago.
Thou wert a slim hart
climbing steep hills fringing a lake
and blue-grey gorges.
You the buck blinked, I
braked, my doe headlights froze, you smiled…
mammal whisperer.
Loping through swaths of
sugar-crisp snow, our hooves stitched lines
in parallel rows.
“When should we schedule
the wedding,” you proposed. “On your
knees!” I laughed and cried.
You labored to turn
millwheels at BP till your gears
chipped and you drowned.
Richer, poorer, through
drinking and walking on eggshells,
hope and despair, home repairs.
Words came tempest tossed
when wretched denials huddled,
yearned, then found fresh air…
While Bambi munched and
grew, blew candles, hung out, talked back,
then sprinted so free.
At Siemens, puppet
masters yanked your chain back and forth
across continents.
Till the links thinned or
rusted while you writhed and juggled
funds like Houdini.
Now unbound, thou art
a pure hart on this mountain top
circling wheaten plains.
Rise up, my love, my
fair one, and come away, for, lo,
the winter is here!
Let us find lands where
hibiscus flush and guava
blooms scent misted air.
Where sun gilds lands gold,
and your bright heart drums a concert and
your breath propels clouds.
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