Your summer hands
burnished brown
from hauling brother's
crab pots and building
backyard raised gardens
grip Harley handlebars
low engine rumbles
the road takes us
Today you turn seventy-five
as we ride I wonder
if on your delivery day
you squalled or whimpered
if your weak eyes
focused on silvery forceps or
your mother's tender face
Did your father step out
to rain glazed street, strike match
gaze at Perseid profusion
consider the meteors a harbinger
of luck for his newborn
second son–then exhale?
We take a curve toward a
nearby lake boasting broad
homes with golf green lawns
I prefer our lake with rugged
shore and forest preserve
where sunsets dip behind pine
release pink-lavender-orange streaks
where tidy cabins dot the shore and
sky and water sustain us with
their beauty and bounty
You were born this day in 1949
an August day of meteor showers
and baby boomer promise
and here we are navigating
roads, shorelines and life
for the too brief miraculous
time we have left
Photo Credit: Giorgios Tsatas, Pexels
Rebecca Swanson
Judge’s Comments:
“Perseid Birthday” imagines the beginnings of the speaker’s beloved companion’s life, only to turn toward the inevitability of its ending. Yet rather than succumbing to despair, the poem finds joy in the beauty of the natural world and the shared experiences that make a life. Like the Perseid meteors streaking across the sky, our time here is fleeting, but no less extraordinary for its brevity. A tender reminder that life is “too brief” but full of “miraculous” moments.
Poet’s Statement:
Loving life and all that it encompasses, especially relationships, becomes more intentional and urgent as one ages. To survive and thrive well into a seventh decade is indeed a blessing. I endeavored to capture that intentionality in “Perseid Birthday,” a tribute to the love of my life, who embraces each day and lives it with intention.