Soul Mates

I saw my soul mate

love at my very 1st sight

her red, sweaty Irish-skin

flushed and glowing, 

imprinted in my D.N.A.

She smiled and called me hers

Her long piano-perfect fingers

held mine or a watercolor brush

Sometime sister, always mother, 

dance partner, travel buddy, friend

I sang for my soul mate

Beatles and "Don't Cry for Me Argentina"

Our voices always raised in song

or debate, loud, Welsh-tempered

hold out for the last word debate.

Font of new knowledge, new passion.

Dad gave me his eyes

chocolate brown, wide-open to possibility

lit from within

dragon's breath and brimstone

I found my soul mate

She lived across the street from me as a teen

the tall, old lady, 

skin soft and folded like laundry.

Serene in the knowledge God loved her

and me and mom.

She laughed loud and proud,

wicked Mid-Western idioms

shooting like "if I had my druthers"

"like ducks in a barrel".

I married my soul mate

I do and I still do love

this rock-god man still and steady

anchor of my crazy

Belly-sore, you crack me up

laughing at your own jokes

I went "there & back again"

to find the one who challenged me

matching quick wits and slow, lingering lips

tangled together, team us

I carried my soul mates

two souls half me, half daddy

born three years apart 

but equally different in my 

mother's heart

X came before W

the brain before the heart

Together they make mine

My boys, my sons, my raison d'être 

There are more, so many more

friends of my soul still to name

Silver and gold, young & old

All intertwined tapestries of my life

Why limit to one when we are

really a sum of all who 

touch our souls.