So Familiar Now

I lie beside you every night so blessed
that I am not alone here in this bed,
that you and I still have each other.

I've come to know the sounds
of your sleeping body
your soft breathing

the shifting of your legs
beneath the sheets
as you turn again to face me

and touch my skin,
your nightly reassurance that
I'm still here.

We are lovers growing old
so familiar now with every hair
and every look that passes
back and forth throughout the day.

At times we read each other's mind
so clearly that I wonder
if we've melded into one new life form
but no . . . we are really just
so familiar.


Joanne Cucinello

All the Way to the End

I was never the one to seek out ecstasy.
You must know that by now . . .
yet even then when the blush
was blooming, I'd lay in awe
and listen to your heartbeat
enraptured knowing you were mine.
We loved like the sun and moon
finding our own rhythm
glowing and dimming
always returning to the place
where we began.

Back then . . . it was the flesh
impatient to climb the mountain
to cling like moss to the rock it found.
We were young and beautiful
shining even in the dark
you and I, always yearning
always hungry for more.
Little did we know
that "more" grows deeper in the soil
than moss that climbs so visible.
"More" grows deep beneath the flesh.

Years have passed and time
has changed these bodies drawing lines
across our flesh
but here we are, my love . . . still singing.

Even now . . .
when I come to you
my beauty less than yesterday
your eyes still say I'm beautiful
for what you see is more
and I know that it's your love
that holds my soul and blesses me
and I will love you . . . to the end.

Joanne Cucinello 2010

Long Before

Before I came to be ~
You loved me.
Unadorned in my mother's womb
I was already yours ~
and you were mine.

Love had claimed us ~
long before
we found each other.
Even as we danced as spirits
in the great beyond ~
you were mine.

And in every lifetime
we have found our souls
abiding in that sacred space
tomorrow holds for just a few
bound together for eternity.

Before I came to be ~
You loved me.

Joanne Cucinello © 2008

And You Are the Man I Love

Warm and tender, you look into my eyes
speaking your truth to my soul.
You speak it, because you love me
and want nothing less of our lives together.
Patient and waiting, you give me time
to come around and miss you.
And miss you, I do so often
when we live our separate days.

You are home to me
your voice, your smile, your being.
You are my ground . . .
my reason to stop and think of why
I want to live.

So many times, we've run the race
your hand in mine
one heart cheering for the other.
So many times, we've licked the wounds
and kissed the remnants
of our war torn fleeting triumphs.

Aren't we the lucky ones to have
found the piece that fits?
Aren't we the blessed ones,
entwined like vines around an old oak tree,
dying and being born again so many times together?

Oh, how I love you, Lord of My Heart!
You are my husband, my brother, my dearest friend.
There has been no greater gift in my life.
You were the beginning of all good things to come,
the mating of our spirits
that brought new life, new shining Beings
into this world, our Children
so fragile, so strong, so beautiful . . .
like you, my Precious Love.

Joanne Cucinello