Wish for a Young Woman

How many days are lost once sun goes south?
Calendars spill their numbers on the floor.
She who gathers the shredded year must know
already her beauty will fade with age
but be preserved by the fires remembered
for their glow illuminating the night.
Banked fires flare once embers ignite and flame
revealing her future cast in luck’s spell.

I, an old man older than her father,
wish for her that her life be companioned
by a lover who gentles her wisdom
learned firsthand from the man whose tenderness
turned to cruelty after their wedding night.
–Silence your fears, old man, her soul is old . . .

For Cherie

(20-21 June 2013)

copyright 2013 by Floyce Alexander