Black Windows of the Night

First Appeared in Chained Muse

We are on our way.
Each night we sit together
as the dark lengthens
and the snowy mountains fade
at an earlier hour.
I light candles as he watches.
We cook together, prodding
coaching and ofttimes criticizing
and I see our dailiness, how we
reach over each other
with the comfort and contempt
of the familiar.
Together so long we abandon
the formality of manners.
I look and see his father’s 
slower speech, facial lines like his dad’s
traveling downward,
changes of countenance make
him only resemble the handsome
drake who courted me. 
In the black windows of the night
we are an old couple
lingering over dinner.
I see why my new friend
didn’t recognize that old photo on the fridge
and I have to wonder how soon
there will be only one of us left
looking back. 

Laura Celise Lippman