exhausting travel

leads to a quaint apartment

in Madrid’s center

married twenty years

forty years around the sun

Iberia calls

summer night parties

arranged by neighborhood kids

hard to say goodbye

a lakeside rainbow

to capture summer sunset

in yesteryear’s park

is impossible

because its beauty hides here

behind these bike paths

and here, with foodies

who’ve taken over highland

for trendy tapas

and here, these teachers

who can’t afford this dinner

but buy its delights

and here, at sunset

where the west was won (and lost),

where the gold reaches

summer evenings are:

black kitty sitting pretty,

day’s leftover warmth

poppies, columbines,

a touch of sweet peach roses,

no work tomorrow

this slice of heaven

is where i’m from, where i live,

where i hope to die

girls leading the way

cooking, cleaning, camping, knives

no boys anywhere

because women will

be tomorrow’s best leaders

to bring us some hope

the goslings follow

a swarm of bees has made home

and spring has brought hope

my oldest earned A’s

even having a boyfriend

and honors classes

best of all: income

coming from both of us, still

because unions work

three pies didn’t help

fifteen thousand down the drain

(cruel irony wins)

but it could be worse!

it could always be worse, right?

except when it can’t