AGAIN

She flies across the dunes on sand-swept toes
and laughs at nothing, relishing the sound.
Rejoicing as the years are shed like clothes,
surprised to find her hair has come unbound.

She shouts his name with youth's unbridled glee;
no longer matronly or circumspect.
Along the shell-strewn shores of memory,
quiescent tide pools filled with love collect.

They'd met as children; summers by the shore
left footprints waves and time could not erase.
A first kiss flowed from friendship's deep rapport,
which surging tides of love would soon embrace.

For fifteen years his absence filled her days.
No matter where she lay, an empty bed.
Such measured heaviness of spirit weighs
against the sixty years that they were wed.

Her heartbeat flutters wildly at the last.
How sad those gathered round can't feel her joy
as through the seasons of her girlhood past
she races to embrace the blue-jeaned boy.