Gibbons Ruark

1941 / Raleigh, North Carolina

Lightness in Age

It means not having to muscle your bag
Onto the baggage rack for the flight to Dublin.
A girl your daughter's age will do that for you.
It means the boy distributes the groceries justly
In your carry-alls so you'll make the car without spillage.
Those lightnesses are not to be taken lightly,
But more than those it's the many-faceted lightness
Of the goldfinch feathering down at morning,
The chickadee's darting blur for the one seed
He spirits away and devours discreetly,
And it's the tenderness of a long-known kiss
Touching your mouth or eyelid or anywhere
With this new lightness, its flickering back-lit by the glow
Of that consuming first one fifty years ago.
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