Making Music

we each
have been
trying to teach
ourselves
to play
to tune
harmonize
on the last day
of elementary
school
we three
mark your passage
with music
ukulele
harmonica
guitar
mother
son
stepfather
no one knows
how
but we try
different rhythms
random chords
creating
a cacophony of chaos
still
despite the dissonance
each one of us
plays on
listening
seeking
tuning in
to find some song
four years
we’ve danced
as family
banded together
testing tempos
learning grace
tonight
there is a moment
celebratory brownie crumbs
abandoned on the plate
your one hundred pound frame
ukulele riffing
a man’s eyes
glistening
above the glint
of moving metal
my own fingers strumming
head nodding
yes
towards you
don’t stop
forget right
just listen
and play
this
is making music
Mystery in Bloom
For those following the Archives, you may recall that last week I was watching the mystery buds of the Plumeria tree. These are the first, since the Bohemian and I planted it a year ago, and our family has been curious to see the color of the blooms.
It’s the first and only tree we’ve planted at our abode, so far. And being that its roots are surrounded by the remnants of the leis we wore at our wedding, it has a special significance to us.
We’ve been excited to see the budding, and eagerly observing the unfoldment of the flowers as they reveal their hue.
And now here they are, full bloom.
If you ask the Bohemian about the day we met (that fateful day at the beach, when I walked passed him on the sand), he’ll say that he saw pink. That as he watched me pass, his eyes following behind me, the air, above and around me, turned a surrealistic shade of blush. He felt a supernatural presence, and he made a wish. (Which came true, as I am now his wife).
In relaying the story to a friend recently, he put it simply. “Love is pink.”
The way that the paths of the Bohemian and I have intersected, has been a beautiful mystery. I don’t need to have it all unveiled.
Now, with our first tree revealing the secrets of its blooms, I say to the Bohemian, “Well, now we know the color…”
“Yes,” he says with a smile. “Love is pink, right?”




