Like Air

by the time you text
to tell me you are home safe
I miss you like air

Ghazal for my Wedding Ring

my ring was lost a couple days
long ones because we were at odds

searching for it became a quest
to quash a more pervasive angst

that I might be the enemy
of my own contentment and joy

and much more significantly
the source of her unhappiness

my wife, from within her own pain
absolved me as a saint wouldn't

allowing the faults at my core
to just be cracks in the timbers

of a ship she still chose to trust
a leaky deck she stood upon

as always, defying the world
the mutinous new commander

charting the course when I lose it
refusing to let the sea win

by the time I found the damned thing
she'd reminded me why I wear it:

with her the stars are undying
for she personally lights them

to carry the both of us safe
back to the home we've created

Cereal

slicing banana
to put in the cereal
recalling mornings
grandparents shared bananas
in quiet companionship