Love Song by Nancy Schatz Alton

“An idea, too, has a
surface, a skin.” – from “The Problem” by Noah Eli Gordon

 

The idea of you changes

like the way my skin ages—

more beautiful than I’d imagined

the age spots like diagrams to shapes I’ve not yet explored

like the triangle of moles that repeat on my daughter’s skin

how I imagine one day someone else who loves her deeply

will note & say—look! Repeated triangles.

You repeat, yet you are new:

an idea I discover again and again

your pleasure at my smarts amazes me

your thankfulness for my brain and quirky sense of humor:

I love the way you love me.

I love the way you wear a watchman-style stocking cap

in our cold house this evening

a new version, different than the beret you wore to bed

that first year that we’d known each other.

Layers upon layers—this idea as beautiful as the guitar

that plays in the background of every achingly gorgeous song

your surface, your skin: I’ll play it until our song ends.