Absolutely Marie Suite

You seldom wavered

You always questioned

When we never trusted

the smoke, the steam, the fog

or more precisely

the cooling towers

and modern chimneys

and their endless denials

in the names of our children;

Can you still detect the distant battle drums

beyond their crude walls

The silica source of our glass embrace

The contrast against concrete monuments

of their unrestricted restrictions,

Bringing us closer to fermented red serenities

and the eventual savoring

of the fresh water’s edge,

Long after the shareholder meetings we disrupted

We recall your robin song voice

and better futures

with frank sense and mirth

Respecting zebra mussels

and mocking invasive authorities

Toasting unnamed friends

and unimaginable foes;

For now I write you

between the lies that lie

somewhere beneath the troposphere

within the truth of an ideal world

hinted in poetic fragments

the looping visions of

just conversations and

sacred conservation,

the welcome evolution of

belated consummation

your uncompromising positions

in the plea garden of your resolve

like monks disrobing under shattered chandeliers,

writhing defiantly by candle-light,

the whispers detected,

the sighs recorded,

possibly even a strand sampled,

later revealed in legal documents,

exonerated

as simply

love.