My fingers have forgotten

How to hold this pen still,

To pluck at ivory keys, to

Touch you without trembling.

Once, my love, ink never bled,

Notes never choked on jolts, for

Once, these hands never shook,

Nor were stars so blurry.

Now years have limped along to find

Words sprawled across this page,

Empty, no, rambling

Oh, rambling, as I am told

Old men ought to learn

They’ve nothing left to teach.

Yet you, my dear, never scorn,

Though your eyes often wander,

Slip away to a universe

Folded in the evening news,

Drowning in your coffee.

But by and by, holding hands,

Shudders hardly matter.

As in those eyes, I see the stars

Clear as once they were, and

My god, how you shine.

Though damn this aging wit of mine,

My mind has forgotten,
My darling, what’s your name?