Better Than Never

Kiss the stones before you skip them across the water.
Turn and run and run and run until you trip and fall
Sprawling face first hands stick into the mud,
Torn shirt and a scratch you think you've seen blood.

How bright the sun did shine this day, and hot.
Steam from sweat on bodies that shiver
Set down like the sun on legs newly hollow,
And talk in the dark like we used to.

Two voices rising like the full moon full
Of cadence and caution, our minds
Running as fast as our legs carrying us
Away from the lake, two days from a bad mistake.

And if we follow from afar, then we should see
The moon, or at least a star rising in the north.
We know where we have been. I can see you
Listening to the whispers on the wind.

We know we should leave this place soon.
We know we should not wait.
Why get up so early and leave in June;
When in your eyes I see our love and know
That we were better than never late.

10.28.2001