Before After Now

Before

My love was a godless prophet,

Drunk on sorrow,

Obsessed with loneliness,

Rummaging in the ashes

Of a misremembered forest fire

Hungry for something sacred.

After

The smoldering remains of 

An overheated summer day. 

We are ghosts rising up into the half-light, 

Familiar strangers crashing into each other.

Your grip is a memory growing solid

Against my starving skin.

The ocean glowing purple below us

Seems to have no end.

We leap

Unconcerned about what comes next. 

Now

Sunlight unfurls through the kitchen window

Weaving around the buttery haze,

Pancakes sizzling on the griddle.

Marvin Gaye plays on my phone

Loud enough to be heard,

Quiet enough to not wake the kids. 

I am humming off-key

Dancing badly across the worn linoleum

You watch, a steaming coffee cup

Wrapped in your hands.

Your laughter a blessing,

This place a sanctuary.