IN NVPTIAS
to H and R

when you're young love comes easy
	words pour out of you 
		aimless and hungry
	like embers that would that
		the world caught fire
but leave only holes in your heart

you walk out on the morrow
	feeling raw
like a shadow leftover
	of nights that went on

and you walk and you hope
	and you find your way home
but home wasn't home until I met you

our first apartment was a second floor
way up the eastern face of the valley in
las Nieves
		we drank coffee watching
		the darker ridge turn red
and the calm that had slept
on the city below
	came up to meet us and past
driving ahead of it the mists so thick
there were nights we couldn't see the floor 

from our window you watch me
walk down the street
	till I turn the corner 
		to the bus
	that brings me down
		with the light
into the day

and
		though apart
	a song rises
		then
	and still
like a season's first sign
	like a bird broken free
like a curtain in love with a candle

				Augusts '16 Chicago —— '19 LI