The first thing she asks
after inquiring about me, while
gripping me in enveloping hug:
how my wife is, the kids are

we talk amiably, deeply
about our lives, families. Stuff.
I see in her eyes what I have
since junior high; this she knows

Her impossible-to-dislike
husband greets me warmly, joins
us in conversation, laughter
their body language, comfortable

any awkwardness that did exist
no longer does, though he knows
that I understand, better than most
what has always been in her eyes

it takes more self-control than I
think I have, to not say aloud, in
reckless triumph, “But I loved her
twenty years before you showed up.”

knowing nothing is to be gained
playing ‘nan-nah-nan-nah, boo-boo’
with the beautiful muse who never
loved me then, but oddly, does now.

– Mark L. Lucker
© 2017
http://lrd.to/sxh9jntSbd