for Alex Bernard Haynes and Eugenia Hope Magann’s wedding
May 3, 2009

What is love is what it’s not
water dripping from a spout
a pencil without lead
a second without a clock

What is love is what it’s not
a meteor streaking across the sky
words that rhyme
coins dropped in a slot

Instead
you can do as two
what you cannot as one
what’s mine is yours
and yours is mine
in a moment of surprise you find
your lives grown ten-fold
in your hands holding hands
are all of those
who’ve gone before and after
all that was and will be
and shall be again
because the ocean never sleeps
because the stars prick holes in the sky
because you took a detour
took a chance on the look
in what once was, and now is not,
a stranger’s eye.