Seven years after,
I can’t count how many
times I look at you

in a moment of fleeting
irritation, when the blue
of your eyes shimmers

just so, as it did when
they blinked open
the day I lost you,

and you returned
thanks to the help of
strangers.

And that tiny moth
of annoyance flits away,
softening me with

the simplest blessing:
Here you are.
Here we are.

No greater gift than
these extra 2,555 days
of us.

No matter how many
more lie before us,
we are here

in this eyeblink of
evaporating moment,
and I will embrace

every sparkling instant
of now
that we are given.

•••

For Dick Schmidt on the seventh anniversary of his
cardiac arrest and rebirth-a-versary, with our thanks to
all the helpers who brought him back to life and tended
him in his recovery.

•••

And, if you like, you can read more about Dick’s Great Heart Adventure in 2019 here.