#8

Your smile illuminates
all your grand features.
Catching our breath you declare:
"Wait, everyone think of a happy childhood memory!"
Laughter.
This is new territory
for our family.
We share and then
not imagining there could possibly be more

Of course we'll go for a ride in the convertible.

I can't tell you how good it was.
The summer night
perfect.
Utter elixir
the air.
The ocean
a dream-scape of
color and mood.
Then there was the moon,
Goddammit, the moon was there too!
Watching us through the trees
laughing with us.

We are raising our arms now.
I am howling at it all.
All this joy and beauty
in our life.
Always.

We get ice cream.
We lean on the brick in the narrow street
each of us holding our cups.
We are watching the moon and the car and the people.
We are together.
"This is a happy moment," I say.

Happy.
There's a new color to it tonight.
She's gold and deep
and running into the dark nectar of my past
giggling to un-surface
the joy that was always there.
Holding it up
for us to savor.

The sledding hill in the backyard.
Dad lacing up your skates,
fires on the beach, with hot dogs.
Free beer.
The beautiful Zuckerman twins
and dad being wild and hilarious.

Night knocks to talk to day
I see now they are smiling at each other.
There is a kissed passed.

We have been given a gift.
We've been given a new life.
We've been given time and each other
A chance to heal the past.
To brave the dark with all this light.
and maybe to guard the light too;
to tenderly care and nurture.

Wait. Wait!
Don't let this story put you to sleep.
Don't fall back into the chasm of that old tune.
"Everyone, think of a happy memory!"
Thank you, Mom.

Thank you, Thay


-Llora H. Kressmann