Holding On to Him
He is shaving in the mirror by the open window
when the sun catches a strand of hair upon his chest,
glinting silver among the rest.
She murmurs. He turns.
She finds the strand, follows it,
grazing his skin with her fingertip.
She asks if there are more she has not noticed,
finds several woven through the rush of hair
across his groin. All have caught her unawares.
Within her, something tightens throat to navel.
The light above the mirror hums.
From the shaded cliffs, their sons'
voices drift through the window screen;
but she is sinking into someday
where she sees him make his way
into the den, scuffing across the floor
in moccasins; reach for the crossword on the table;
bend, pat the dog, gently tug one velvety sable
ear, then the other; at the window, check
the outside temperature, turn, head for their bedroom;
reappear dressed same as yesterday to resume
a chore he'd set aside last evening. Later, she gazes
as he walks down the driveway for the mail.
He pauses — thinking of the orchard, she can tell.
She watches until she can see him clearly again:
square shoulders she loves, hair not yet white.
All day, watching for signs, tossing in their bed all night.
What Matters
I cannot visualize your heart as it appears in the film
of the intervention that saved your life.
I cannot picture the still-dying cells sloughing off,
or the inflammation that will not calm for weeks;
but I can see my hand circling above, then upon
your warm chest, soothing and cooling
the still-hot embers of your damaged ventricle,
my tenderness running like a current
over your still-beating muscle —
new cells, new cells, new cells —
as your heart pumps its love-rich blood,
as your strong body, your stubborn will,
your joyful self, rebuild what was
so starved for oxygen two Saturdays ago.
Catherine DeNunzio's poetry has appeared in, among other publications, Many Mountains Moving; The Breath of Parted Lips: Voices from The Robert Frost Place; Italian Americana; Connecticut Literary Anthology 2020; and Waking Up to the Earth: Connecticut Poets in a Time of Global Climate Crisis. She has poems forthcoming in Connecticut River Review, Passager, and Marin Poetry Center Anthology. DeNunzio lives in Connecticut.