Before Jazz

This poem is dedicated to my husband.  It is a reflection of the time we spent alone together before the birth of our daughter whose name is Jazz.

Sepia memories edgewise slip
past days piled high
like laundry into years.

Before Jazz, you,
with your Flamingo smile
proposed a marriage consummate with myth
and nodding mounted my assent.

In days early
while sleeping late,
time in limbo waited
among a detritus of desire,
entangled we lay

Your tongue cuneiform traced
against sibilant skin
and with patterns cunning
wove a life.

With reptilian need,
we clutched flingertips
callused from too much play
and spent ouselves in time.