04 March 2009

To my wife on her birthday

When first we met

You were a mere forty-seven,

Raising two boys

At eleven-eleven.

You thought you had reached

The end of your game;

Not predisposed

To meet your next flame.


Yet by the time

You reached forty-eight

We’d done “Gift of Vision”,

Set our wedding date,

Repaired the roof

(To keep out the pigeons)

And started a process

To change my religion.


At age forty-nine

Little time for renewel

Each day sending off

Three boys to school.

Come to age fifty

What happened then?

If I could remember

I’d be young again


But it isn’t our memories

Starting to fail

With more years to archive

Deluge of detail.

But here I must stop

For now we are late

Happy fifty-seventh

Heaven will wait.