songs for keeping the watch: night 12

the watch begins again: the measured pace, the night's long vantage,
resolute & hum. our love a reckon, sharp & sweet & rung. the autumn

waxes. day waives into day. along the planet's curve i sing you back
the hours we have spent, our synchronize. the sense still lingers;

honey on the tongue. long days of coffee, laughter, sudden sun: each
a ready in the rope of years. the nets we cast for blankets, huddled

here; across the night outstretched we trace the time. the pattern we
have made in passing through, the lope & launch of orbit, twinned & strung.

though at removes, in distance & in lack, our fugue resolves--smooth
merging of our maths--jointly now, articulate & stride. in this brisk

air i bate. we weather to our liking, you & i: improbable, perfected,
now in wait. formidable in season. i mind the days as one who knows

that watches always end, who knows the face that, waiting, welcomes in.