When You're
(For Stacy, who is pregnant)

When you're fat, your largess splayed out on the couch,
When you're feeling tired, ugly, or unloved
And your skirt won't cover your chubby, round knees,
Know that poems buried so deep they'll never see the day
Were written about your eyes, eyes that seemed to smile.

You'll be a silver-haired old lady, a chattering bird
Talking of gold deep in a forgotten mine
With a twinkle and a smile in her eye--
Thoughts of you and mountain snow, Colorado,
Winters up in Buffalo, and poems like this.

2/5/99