PAST ALL THAT

I have loved you
past the place where
we were good poetry.

Past the Coltrane courtship songs,
past the stories of the ones that didn't work out;
the ones we could have never loved like this.
I have loved you past the giddy laughter
right before you kiss me.

I have loved you to this place.
The place where we hold on;
trying not to forget.

Where we tell each other
everything will be alright.

When we know there's no money,
and sometimes you go away.

We drink our coffee
as a sacrament.

It was all scented skin
in the beginning.
We have transcended all that.

We are ordinary.

We are bedrock and cool earth.

We are married.