Sonnet 75 – Beautiful By Moonlight

You were beautiful by moonlight, kneeling
beside me on our bed.  With one warm hand
you caressed my cheek, my neck.  Then, leaning
down to kiss me, your hair became a kind

curtain, draping our faces in soft, clean
silk and perfumed wonder.  You taught me the
marvel of your mouth as your lips met mine:
full and yielding, yet yearning and hungry

just for me.  Your eyes met mine and, for one
moment, I saw the Goddess – fey, feral
and pale perfection – all that men have known
or sought.  The moment passed and I found all

that I had longed for lying by my side:
Goddess no longer, but my heart’s true bride.

Sonnet 74 – I Miss You

I will tell you as plainly as I can
that I miss you. No day is complete if
I cannot hear your sweet voice. No woman
could hold me so dear, could promise a life

filled with the laughter and bright longing that
you would bring to me with each new morning.
I thrill to see you – I remember what
you wore the last time we touched. Just holding

each other - arms around the other’s waist,
brows touching as we rubbed noses – brought home
how lonesome this would be. One kiss, one taste
of your love to last me and you were gone.

In all my waking thoughts, you are here. We
never know sadness. I am not lonely.

Sonnet 73 – Ashes

Forget metaphor and allusion – these
are black days and demand plain words, cruel words,
savage thoughts. I have no desire to ease
or salve any other’s pain. There are hurts

so deep that there’s no relief without dark
damage done in kind. I should be a good
man, noble and giving, but there’s no spark
of grace or mercy in me. If I could,

I would rip and tear and rage and reduce
the wide world to something meaner, something
more like the mad-drunk man I feel. Seduce
me with caring? It won’t mean a damned thing.

No matter. Dreams don’t come true and wishes
go wanting. Lost love tastes just like ashes.

Sonnet 72 – Watching You

I could study you a lifetime and I’d
never lose my sense of wonder or the
joy I find in you each day.  Playing hide-
and-seek with the youngest, seeing that she

has shed her shorts again as she runs down
the hall naked and shrieking with glee, your
face is full of mommy-mirth as your own
laughter chases after her.  Never sure

that I’m not watching you, you go about
your day now with little care for what I
may see.  Unguarded with me, there is not
a thought or emotion that does not fly

directly to your eyes, show in your face.
You’re all I know of beauty, all of grace.

Sonnet 71 – Ask Me

Ask me to name each of my sins – be my
confessor and my friend and I will tell
you all, despite the risk that you would fly
from me in disappointment or fear. Tell

me that you want me to storm the gates of
Hell: I will be your larger than life man
and fight my way through any darkness to prove
myself worthy, to take that foul domain.

Ask me to hold you when your day has been
lonely, to write you poems and songs or
to carve a heart with our initials in
an oak tree. I’ll do all of this and more.

But do not ask me to stop loving you,
Bright Angel – that I cannot dream to do.