the ocean breathes salty won't you carry it in

blue eyes
bluer than any sky
bluer than your name sake
giving new meaning to the word blue

stretching smile
more joyous than holidays
more natural than breath
giving new meaning to the word smile

tromping in tiny leap-like steps
arms waving, informing the world you don't yet care what she thinks of you

you say my name
and though it sounds less like becky than "bucky"
it is more my name than any other collection of syllables has ever been
i am more proud to be "bucky,"
the one to whom you bound and toddle
than ever to be becky
...the theologian
...the minister
...the student
...the one of whom much is expected

as you continue to bound my way
my heart wonders if her hope is ill founded
have i wondered onto a movie set
...where people pretend to love each other
...where one is over joyed to see another
...where hope seems possible especially on the darkest day
...where time stills until standing still as two meet, embrace, and dance in a brief moment of encounter

still you come as hope begins to shine as only in fiction
your arms spread expectantly as you near me
and you never think to slow - fully trusting, hoping, expecting my response

as though compelled
as my new name is shouted again and again
i lean and mimic your open-armed way of being

you reach me and my arms fold around you
i lift you to the sky who pails in your eyes

we laugh

in your laugh
in your eyes
in my laugh
and in what my eyes hold so tightly to
eternity spreads
...though only for seconds