Forty-Four----

Forty-Four

Summers come, summers go

Good days forever following strife.

And all the years have shown

winters will always pass on.

She savors the spring

when life is a blue sky and laughter is for free.

With her feet in the pool she sits.

Draws lazy eights in the water.

Smokes slow and sips iced tea.

--Wonders if fishes ever tire of seafood

swimming around in the deep blue sea.

Other days when times are the worst.

When problems storm at the gates.

When it hurts her even to breathe.

Then her heart flows with the bravest of bravery

And like an Apache she attacks whatever is wrong.

She knows just when to hunker.

Knows just when to smile, knows just when to fight.

Savvy, sharp, bold, happy and strong.

He flame burns bright forty-four years on.

She's found a love deep and true.

Found a love tender and long.

Back to back, face to face,

where once there was one,

now two travel on.

She keeps him close.

She kisses him often.

She keeps him free.

And he knows she's a lady.

Knows when she is right.

Knows when she is wrong.

He knows the mistress in her, knows the little girl.

And she's the finest thing he's ever seen forty-four years on.

Children growing, children grown.

Children happy as the days roll along.

First words, first sights, first crunches

first years, first cars, first flights.

First dreams to dream on.

She teaches them to stoke the flames.

She teaches them kindness, gives them advice.

She shows them how to be strong.

She gives them candy, teaches them jokes.

Her face forever mother forty-four years on.

It's the twenty-first century

and much of the world

has forgotten the song.

But she remembers how to be a hippie

and her soul keeps up the beat.

She's still a rock and roll lady.

True to herself forty-four years on.

Dewey Dirks—copyright 2005
For Elaine