There is music in the living room

Which is nothing new

It′s never not in our houseTonight, you put on an exhausted 7-inch of

Donny Hathaway's A Song For You that

Purrs and pops

Warms the room like a

Bag of kettle corn in a sauna

And maybe they′re too old for this now, but

The kids are making handmade Valentine cards out of

Old parchment paper we've collected over the years

A pink plastic bin of

Bark, leaves, stones, seashells, leather, clay, and

All sorts of hand-me-down knick-knacks

Hides under the old bunkbed in their room

For such evenings like this one

All of it sprawled out on the Egyptian rug my

Mom bought in 1995

The best "new-parent money" could buy, she told me

Her gift to us the night before the wedding

In small company

Even now, in a time where they could

Visit a water park on Neptune

Digitally sculpted and programmed into their brain chips

At any time, you insist our children be crafty

Kept them engrossed in making everything by hand

Taught them about the texture of glitter

How holding it all together in the

Cupped mug of your hands could help teach you

How to love a beautiful mess of another person

While I was off being a fireworks show for them

You were gifting them mugs filled

With hot lemon balm tea and lavender

When they came back

Never ever forever never

Do I thank you enough for these things

Rest your head on my shoulder

Let's slow dance

You love like a lioness

Glitter in your mane

Glue caked on your paw

Claws on my back when we sway

But never sharp

I′m crooning an

Off-tune falsetto onto your eardrum

Just soft enough to be

A balmy breeze in the Sahara

I love you in a place where there is no space or time

On our Egyptian rug with

Frosted Flakes milk and

Argentinian wine stains

All over our space from

Different times

You′ve always been

So beautiful

At 8:31 PM