outlined in grace,
a silhouette against the city’s light,
she works into the night,
as silently upon the hotel bed,
he sits and studies her
enshrined in memory,
the day of promises,
and night of many, much and after much,
an age of opulence,
and giving when that all was natural
but after years,
what effortless once was is concentrated work,
and he forgets the high unlikelihood
that she’d be here with him,
after so many things and years,
five feet away, so beautiful,
outlined in grace