the date approaches
though it hasn’t announced itself
yet

and with every sunrise you think
you haven’t done enough
learned enough

loved enough
you haven’t fully embraced
the complexity

the richness
wrapped up in this brevity
of a lifetime

and you have questions
whether by happenstance
or inspiration

that are slow to form
stutter on your tongue
hardest to spit out

oh, the beautiful questions
to which you’re beginning
to suspect

you’ll never have answers
no one can answer
but you’re willing to try

to ask them is
to see the world shining
like the gift it is

glittering in its sun-
wrapped ribbons
dangling from the

merciful
immortal
sky

•••

for Sue Reynolds