How Long?

How long have you been married?
We’ve been married since the beginning of time.

Time began when we married.
Our skin came to life  and dreams flowered

We lived in the luxuriance of  the sleep
That made a jungle of changing lights and heat

We were lost and found both at once 
In each instant in ways we’d not thought possible

Down paths that started with us and ended in us
But were richer than any story we could tell

Richer than any song we could ever sing
There is no mapping where we have been 

There is no cataloging who we have been.
Peacocks and elephants, penguins and anchovies,

a gorgeous intimate bestiary which was real
to us and in us, whose name we’ve never learned

Can I tell you more?  No, I've said too much -
the door to this poem lies in life and death

For Joan
Valentine's Day 2012