Startled by Existence

Anchored: a Mid-love life poem to my wife. 8/01

For Christians, the reason why it is ordinarily assumed that a marriage will go on "till death do us part" has been that this advanced lesson in Charity which marriage opens into is a long, a difficult one, and the life span that my spouse and I are allowed will certainly not be nearly long enough to finish the lesson . . . I will have as much as I can do to learn this advanced lesson well with one other person; a harem will only confuse my efforts.              Thomas Howard: Hallowed be This House

We have crossed the border of our fine humid state,

and tasted bluer air.

 

We have traveled on vacation into sights

that fill our minds with dreamy things:

Rocks streaming overhead like jump-ropes,

high vista sweeps and white water plunge --

 

Only to ask: WHAT in the WORLD are we doing

plugging away in Arkansas ,

even with its green moldy hills,

and soft curved streams

I’ve got this job, but even that could fade –

Family is far away, and nothing short of

Caesar making taxes on the whole blue world,

could ever drive us to a single place.

 

Most of us have gone

searching for some kid-hood home ..

and found a house instead.

 

Yea babe – you admit it quick, were displaced,

And looking for that final hearth.

 

But here, here in the heartland, beside you

I find my one unmoved geography.

 

These lips have kissed your lips until

I could pick you at the kiss contest, blindfolded, with a single touch.

I know the weight and distribution of your body –

The hills and dales and cutaways; And though we won’t ask me

to find you in some contest …

this landscape matches with my dreams.

 

Sure the scenery changes … ever slow,

You decry erosion,

Or the shifting shore line –

But these rocks beneath the silt

are firm, and no continent is lost

to the changing tide.

 

There is a riddle to this union

bigger than us both -- Haven’t we both asked:

How in the world did we ever get married?

or even,

Must I be in this forever?

 

We are:

Kirk the Jerk, and Kerry Jean

Who would lick our platters clean, should

we ever share the plate;

 

We are:

Two different eyes, in two different heads, with

Two different thoughts about most everything.

 

We are:

Flex vs. Stiff

Flow vs. Shove.

Chaos vs. Discipline.

Tomorrow vs NOW!

Good-intention vs. Accomplishment.

 

Thanks babe. I needed you.

 

Then there is that matter

of being known

It’s taken many years –

to carve ME in your soul – and I don’t think

that I could find my heart

in the eyes

of a stare – that don’t look back

into mine, with knowing.

 

So .. let the advertisers bark;

I have made my mind

To keep my castle here

with us for eternity –

 

Until death do us part –

 

Wherever we might move.

 

PS.

Did I mention that I love you?