To my wife as I grow older

Because I favor you amongst all others

I can pick you out amongst the crowd.

Sense the direction to turn to find you

know which room to search that hides you.

When asleep I am awakened by your absence.

My need to have you closest to me

even when the noblest glow of rapture rings

in celebration of all my doings and things;

I am nothing by measure without you.

It's a cultivated presence over the years

that has made me so tentative and residual.

When we are not together I feel ashamed.

Feel unwholesome and strange

as if an unattached appendage claims

it should be through severed nerve reclaimed.

That my every conscious moment is missing

its definition and affirmation;

if you are not witness to its confirmation.

Time is fleeting when I am with you.

No pursuit is worthy to forego you.

How strange it is to upstage the man

as the pendulum swing slows in demands;

that my love for you would gain momentum

even until the very last diminution of sand

falls from the speeding hour glass.