Let Us Say Good

for Bethany and Dan

We say it like we’ve heard it said good
& plenty, often straight from God said good

in the beginning the light was, spark-start
of stars orbiting; & just to pass each other was good

at first, a glance, a word, squeezing the same
avocados at the market to test for the good

sort of give, was, not knowing what could surpass
the promise of an unknown pick. We’re good

till the right sort of soften has us doubled
in laughter, double-dipping, in sweatpants, in good

sweat, serving at match-point, who knew love –
– all was just the start – initial rush – a good

plot, thick & dense & tangled keeps us going,
even when snarled in a rolling hitch, always good

knots, that save a skiff – it’s hard to say if a brush
of snow will lay its quiet down for good

& stay a day a winter a decade until we realize
that we’ve woken into the same good

conversation: a lifetime of saying, not-saying
a thing & let us call the sleigh bed good,

good Sunday walks, despite cancer’s raze, still
we can make out the steeple’s tip a good

head above crimson maples & when in the red
of debt or starting the string of good-

byes that claims our days, on this one & all
the days that gather again & again let’s say good

together, hand in hand, that in the waving
through this life he was good by her; she, by him.