[female] You set your keys beside the bowl of pears. The kitchen takes on the color of honey. You roll your sleeves and take my hand, and I feel the day leave my shoulders. Somewhere beneath the life I can name, a deeper part of me knows this warmth. As if I once warmed my hands at this fire when the stars were young enough to touch. [male] I know the way your mind turns a question, how you tilt it till the hidden edge shines. Tell me the thought you were halfway through. I love what happens when you take your time. I could listen till the fruit goes dark, till the last boat turns in the harbor. And when your thumb moves over my wrist, even the quiet has a pulse. [both] What the fire makes of gold, let our living hands unfold. Let the ancient have a home in the skin and in the bone. All the light our souls could hold takes the shape of what we do. I can feel the vow take form every time I turn toward you. [female] There’s a particular look you give me when a thought of mine catches you off guard. Your mouth goes still, your eyes go bright, and I can almost watch you change your mind. That is a kind of nakedness I love. Then your hand comes warm against my back. I know the pleasure of being listened to. I know the pleasure of being wanted. With you, they arrive at the same hour and sit down at the same table. [male] I said I’d mend the step that shifts in rain. Come see how steady it is underfoot. Saturday, I’ve got a road in mind, two thermoses and the whole coast ahead. Tonight, put your feet here in my lap. Let my hands take their time with the miles. I love the wild reach of your imagination. I love being the man you come home to. There’s room for both in the life we make. Leave your notebook open by the bed. [both] What the fire makes of gold, let our living hands unfold. Let the ancient have a home in the skin and in the bone. All the light our souls could hold takes the shape of what we do. I can feel the vow take form every time I turn toward you. [female] When you took my hand to say your vows, your thumb kept moving over my knuckle. I remember that as much as the words. How the man who stood so sure beside me could be moved by the weight of my hand. And tonight, when you kiss the inside of my wrist, that same sweet tremor passes through us. I turn my hand over and hold yours. Whatever in me is older than speech has a voice in the way I say your name. [male] My wife, I love the heat in your yes. I love how fully you inhabit your joy. Bring me the thought that kept you awake. I want to know where it took you. Then let me put my mouth to your shoulder and feel you smile before I see it. When the house goes dark and you reach for me, you’ll find the warm of me beside you. And when morning makes a line across the bed, I’ll pull you back against my chest. [both] Sha na ri, e lia sha. Sha na ri, e lia sha. What the soul remembers, let the body sing. What the mouth has promised, let the morning bring. Set another place beside the hearth. Bring the farthest star down into earth. [female] Some nights I feel the whole wide field in the inch between your mouth and mine. Then you kiss me and the distance folds, and the room is a room and the room is divine. I could spend a lifetime learning how the eternal feels at this scale. The weight of your arm across my waist. The small sound you make as you fall asleep. [both] What the fire makes of gold, let our living hands unfold. Let the ancient have a home in the skin and in the bone. All the light our souls could hold takes the shape of what we do. I can feel the vow take form every time I turn toward you. [male] In the morning, I’ll put the kettle on. [female] I’ll come down barefoot when it sings. [both] Here is the gold. Here in our hands.
