for Janey
"The air, that weightless something
that surrounds your head 
and brightens when you laugh" 
                          -Tonino Guerra 

the days run faster & faster 
winter worms south then north again 
now & again anxiety gallops through 
wow who am you? are I? here, here

see presence of world in your face
clouds crickets weaving lights & glorious ache 
that we be just as mortal as Signorina 
Portinari whom Signor Alighieri once saw 
(just once, so luckier we, to be sure)

& as night falls, house folds around us, hums
faint flutes & tambourines
leave us asway in dreams in world's best bed