I was ready for your birthday
I conceived a poem in my eye
Round, terse
With a classic statement of honor and love
I wrote it this way
What more can we know
But acting on our beliefs
It stopped there
Wouldn’t go, although I prodded it
And coaxed, and one time
Prayed
But it sat in my eye a month or more
I saw you at your desk holding a rough laugh
I saw you hurry along just ahead of me
And realized, just now
I was not ready
For your birthday
By Ray Burleigh
