Alednam

To grow old is to know everything,
and so I'll hang here a moon
using the ring you gave me for Christmas;
to grow old is to be Moses, lifting his staff
to part the angry waters of our angry sea,
and in the end raising everything,
this long-stem glass nobody but us
could have filled with this bubbling sea;
to grow old  is to watch waters open
so we might reach the promised land.
To grow old together, all love notes
on tops of furniture we haven't dusted
since moving here, after the children's
arrival, tired photos taken under the eye
of the endless moon--growing old together
gives us each half a heart to keep, and
twice the things we would have known
if the moment had offered a face of love
to touch, instead of only fire and ice.