Valentine's Day 2019, From My Window

Drags of old snow

cover gray-brown winter yards

as the sky lights pink under the dark clouds.

My beloveds lie sleeping

in the next room,

just as beloveds

lie sleeping in every rowhouse on my block,

quiet under wisps of smoke

and the long, icy pall of winter.

Just the day to break out love,

and not that oblivious in-love of partners--

never what the day was for--

but the love that keeps us whole,

bound to one another.

That love that knows healing

can come from the gesture

of compassion, the wordless glance,

the long listening,

and that in each of us

is a place that needs it.

This love is fierce for seeing the other;

for wanting what is fair and human,

for believing that life’s secret

is living from the abundance of saying

we have enough. This love

knows that the ground under us

is our home and the only thing that will keep

us alive; breathe within

its limits. Hold this day

as though it were precious.

Do one thing you love.