To Have and to Hold

Under a maple tree

in the afternoon sun

on a beautiful day in May

We said our vows

To have to hold …

To love and to cherish

Didn’t have a clue about

The roller coaster

We had boarded

Without the faintest glimmer of

what the future would hold

But that day in May

When I looked into your eyes

I said to myself

There is no place on earth

That I would rather be

Those early days

On any given Sunday

Sleeping in

New York Times sections

spread across the bed

Picking the movies

we would see later that day

I would say to myself

There is no place on earth

That I would rather be

There were rough times

Early on…..

I could have lost you

My grandmother nursed you back to health

No thank you required

it’s what I do

She would say

And as I wept, grateful for

your safe return to my arms

I would say to myself

there is no place on earth

that I would rather be

Since those days there have been

Times of joy so sweet

Mixed with times of pain and suffering

Together we lost so much and so many

Together our children and grandchildren

Have grown and flourished.

And through those times

I would say to myself

There is no place on earth

That I would rather be

And today

Decades from that day in May

No matter what life tosses our way

I repeat our vows

Knowing full well

The depth and breadth of their meaning

Knowing what I couldn’t have even imagined

When they first passed my lips

And say to myself

there is no place on earth

that I would rather be

To have and to hold

And to love and cherish you.