American Lady

Every butterfly knows that the end
is different from the beginning

and that it is always a part
of a longer story, in which we are always

transformed. When it's time to fly,
you know how, just the way you knew

how to breathe, just the way the air
knew to find its way into your lungs,

the way the geese know when to depart,
the way their wings know how to

speak to the wind, a partnership of feather
and glide, lifting into the blue dream.


from Joy, by Stuart Kestenbaum


...and just the way I knew I was going to marry her after spending a few months together. "I would marry you," I said. "Of course we're getting married," she replied. And we did!