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