On this your 38th birthday

So what if I want to romanticize the dead

only remember the dancing,

the girlish pacts

I paid my dues to reality

watched your limbs grow idle,

the spark fade from your eyes

Now we are perfect

sitting together

in your old apartment on Rose street

you, nestled in the big chair

me, across on the couch

both wrapped in your familial blankets, laughing