Si cor meum erat, a libro, hoc est, quomodo legere

Happily ever After

Waking up in a sweat
Brushing thick black hair from your brow
The red locks of your wife's hair shine in the moonlight

She stirs
Her blue eyes look a stormy gray as she peers alarm on your face
You marvel at how much she can say
Without opening her mouth
And you remember
You met her silent
And you shiver

It would have been
So
Easy
For you to have mad a huge mistake
To love the body of your wife over her soul
To love the taste of your wife without savouring it
If she had not been so fiercely
Brave in her love she would not have built a home within your house
Calmed the storm outside your window and turned it into the whisperings of a tide

You would be lost at sea

She has saved your life like
She could wear your heartbeat like a necklace around her neck and find her way
Back to you

Her body
Dips and rises in her sleep
Slumber revealing her peace
It shifts over the years
A magnificent metamorphosis
As from it emerged a child
Birthed from wide powerful hips

A daughter with a life of her own
Growing as vibrant as her mother
Whirlpools begins her eyes
When she lets out a morning cry
It crashes into your heart and you feel like you could drown in it
The sheer power of her lungs

And it reminds you
How could you have missed a breath
With even an ounce of that power
While you were young?

As your wife lets out a murmur in your sleep
You wrap your arms
Over her body
And you wish you could be the air that rests on you both
So you could touch each and every bit of her

You kiss her
So a smile rolls to her cheek

And at night with the ocean outside your window
the moonlight on her pale skin
And your daughter sleeps

Joy is a marriage
It is a ruler
It is an ocean
It is a lion
And it is a song

And that in itself is enough