driving to meet you at the bar for the first time
after twenty years more or less without mention of you except in the legends
I had a feeling of that moment
right before the next thing lands
that makes the world move
slightly off its axis...

you stood with
your hands gently closed
and your sedate nervousness,
a tractor beam of vulnerability.

you possess all manner of gifts,
innocence,
delight,
sweetness,
perseverence....

and humbly have no awareness of
how radiant and beautiful you are and always will be to me.

As the snow fell and covered the roads and the earth wobbled,
I sat and watched as you filled the room with sound and laughter...
reached into my heart and pulled me into yours...