Anniversary

You're the icing. I'm the swarm of candles
on my cake. It's my birthday. Bring me an island.

I'm like an atlas: Impossible to find Delaware.
Beware my small moods. Beware.

I cover my eyes. I know what's coming.
Don't look. Will you look at what's coming?

Around the bend. Some wilderness I part
with a jackknife dive. You on the banks in the dark.

Your voice weaves through my five belt loops.
Air changes angles when you haul me up.

As angels dangle from pulleys in a play:
Something hangs over us, always.

I replace the roof shingle by shingle.
You keep rain off, tap gutters when they're full.

There's too much. There's not enough.
You say, just the right amount in every bowl & cup.

Bad at math, I'm dumb as a bell, clumsy.
But rapt. On the tag mark X & X. An O for me.

Copyright © 2006 Erin Malone All rights reserved
from The Laurel Review
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission