Blue-Ice Birthday Boy

Talk about him.
Compromise with his Huckleberry kisses,
softly say good-bye,
for he could not have been a step away
from heaven's call.

Glory at his door-step,
he was masterful at family ties,
young-at-heart,
a man who did not hold grudges,
telling time with his certain bend of phrase,
locked in a sensible joke,
laughing--joyfully--
with his head caught in the clouds.

Might he have been a genuine Valentine?
The ghosts of paper hearts
locked away in my cluttered head,
remember that he was but a paperboy early in life,
that he loved car engines since he stood all day
working on them,
tasted love with gusto.

He might have sent for me.
So air-mail him the best.
Lost in the dark music of the night,
his grand death looked like little boy blue
cut short in the prime-of-life.

I memorize his James Dean stance,
the finale of his movie-ola lifestyle,
picking up his cowboy-voice
by way of a graveling radio,
humming the scene of a deep tragedy
yet filled with pictures of his piquant smile.

He was a kiss away from having it all.
What would he tell his beautiful little girl
if he were sitting there,
handing her a glass of chocolate milk?

I could lie in the shadows with a pen,
or pick out a thousand tricks
from behind a big paper moon,
but no, it would be pointless.
It is just aprop` to say,
If you knew him, you would have fallen in
love with him.

Dreaming him up all over again,
I love to think of his living twice,
lightning-like skating away
on the wings of February's song,
caught behind the bushes,
kissing his true love,
then kneeling in church,
chin raised up to the light of the altar,
a man mixed with prayer and hope,
asking, perhaps, to come home now.

In the corners of his smile,
from the smell of his breath,
you will find his red and white truck
parked by the trail of the road,
his special sweaters packed away--
ones that I'd never seen--
with the pause in the evening
that makes his lover's sigh a little easier again,
skirting the perimeter of love's illusions.

I, too, wish for his children,
the many blessings he awaited.
Turn your face to the light, little brother.
"He" will see you,
yearning for your best pose.
Peaceful condolences,
sincerely go forth to your spouse,
every day of my life.