Dogwood Branches

Tangled up in dogwood branches,
hair, limb, and happenstances,
soft summertime kisses.  

We were kids back then.
I became We.
Love and geography.
Religion and circumstances,
tangled up in dogwood branches.
Tangled limbs, bed sheets, second chances.
Soft summertime kisses.  

Hospitals.
Tears and people,
the feeble.
Tangled and mangled.
Kissing dreams goodbye,
kissing you goodbye.
Soft summertime kisses. 

Tears and people.
Church and steeple.
Hope and mourning,
Mingled, tangled, mangled.
Dogwood coffin,
I sit on her stump often.
Where we used to get tangled,
hair, heart, limb, and bramble,
heart rattle,
I remember
soft summertime kisses.  

Old man, frayed brown trousers.
World weary face, medicinal powders.
Empty mailbox.
Wall lined with pictures,
of dead people.
I’ve been retired longer than you lived,
but I remember when we climbed high,
memories, stories, limbs and heart,
tangled up in dogwood branches,
happenstances, circumstances, second chances,
and soft summertime kisses.

I don’t know what to do without you.

But soft kisses
in the summertime
of my life,
carry me through.