Your Birthday

A day like any other in a long succession
of days that make up a year for a year
is as long as it takes for your birthday to
come around, and the day began as it always
does with a hug and a snuggle, smiles and
routine where I set the table for breakfast
and you take our little dogs out to the
backyard on a day like most winter days
where the garden is white with hoar frost
and there's an ice fog smothering the
atmosphere. It's your birthday, my love.
We shower together, have breakfast, recall
the speckled trout you caught on our
honeymoon that the lodge cooked for our
dinner that night. We talk about our early
years, our families, our children, our sole
grandchild because just because and it's
your birthday and somehow it seems so
important that we review all these chapters
in our long life together because my dear
it's your birthday. Friends ask what we've
planned for the day and we smile. The day
plans itself for it's your birthday and though
it's a day like any other our quietly hushed
celebration of memory and love suffice.