Doug Baldauf #4, Musings
MEMORY BOOK
Remember the girl of sixteen
who smiled at you because she liked you
and you smiled back?
You were handsome and tan and twenty-one
with amber eyes
and a Mercury convertible
And someone said you beat everyone at tennis.
I worshiped the ground where you had stood,
as only a girl of sixteen could,
and called it love.
As many summers have come and gone since then
as I had lived
and the girl got left behind somewhere
in a memory book of you and other heroes
with forgotten names.
And in that time I’ve been with you
and come to know you well
I’ve seen behind the amber eyes
and found a gentle man
who beats almost everyone at tennis.
The Mercury convertible
brought three babies home from the hospital
before it fell asleep one day for good.
Your once dark hair is streaked with gray
I’m sure I caused
and still I smile at you
and you smile back
and know I love you.
TEA FOR TWENTY, RAINY DAY
Painter of pictures
Dreamer of dreams
Writer down of soft words
Child-woman
Lover
Mother
Present giver
Flower grower
Cheerer up of sad friends
Funky junk collector person
Smiler into camera person
Comer into living rooms
I’ll never ever see
Beach walker
Peace maker
Tennis playing cookie baker
Life of the party
Feeder of birds
Complex and uncomplicated,
Stable and insane,
Through the window rain watcher
Wonderer who I am.
Doug Baldauf #2: Love Poems
VALENTINE
Because
you came along
to fill my heart
with warmth and joy
I only found before
in summer mornings
I promise not to hassle you
for being hard to figure
difficult to reach
and impossible not to love
YOU ASKED ME WHY
For your patience
For your sense of humor
For always being there
For taking me to Hawaii
But most of all
for loving me
a long time now
I ironed all your shirts today
fourteen of them
From “Barefoot on Warm Sidewalks” by Doug Baldauf, c. 1975