Sonnet 53 – One Perfect Word

You have no confidence in the power
of your speech.  I don’t get it.  When you speak,
I know exactly what you mean, I hear
my needs precisely met.  When I feel weak

or frail, you find strength to share with me and
words to make the sharing real.  Only one
woman has ever said “you are my man”
and caused me to believe that I could win

any height - that was you.  If I write a
phrase, a line, or a verse that rings true to
the ear, it was guided along the way
by my desire to serve you, to please you.

You are what poetry aspires to be:
one perfect word, framing love perfectly.