What words

...for the smile pulled from under my chin
when I see her in the morning?

What words
for 10,000 quiet trips to the insta-mart
for diet coke?

What words
suffice
to outline that laugh
as she calls me with vanishing details
of people I do not know
when my desk is on fire?

What words
compare to the holy notes painted
on the manuscript of her heart
when she prays aloud?

What words
measure the chasm
of losing our first?

What words
for the difference in the brown
of her eyes after she smiles?

What words
reach the upper branches
of the tree we planted
in our midst
watered with blood from our eyes
pruned by the flaying pains
pollinated by late whispers
rooted in Him
brightened by every moldy joke and fluid, cleansing laugh
abundant, alive, strong
fruited by our children?

 

What words
when joy breaks my surrendering heart
as piercing as any loss and pain?