Crystal Anniversary

Deep in a glassy ball, the future looks
Impacted, overdue, a thing that ticks
And dings with promise, but will not happen; we,
Meanwhile, tick-and-dinging through the glow
Of one more married morning, mind the clock
Of age, fading slowly into black-
On-white biographies. The crimson bird
You welcomed sunrise with, and somehow scared,
Has skirred off, blazing, to a hazy past. Sill,
It's all there, deep in the glassy ball,
The past as future: you and that morning flash
Of wings bore anniversaries, a rush
Of visions- you, golden on a far-off beach
Sand-silver- anniversary of such
An earlier you, ringed with the flickering churn
Of antique fountains- anniversary again
Of you, you, dazzling in the fever of love
And smiling on those nights wed hardly move,
But stand for hours, deep in crystal flakes
Of bundled, quiet winter, touching cheeks.
It wasn't then our worst, or yet our best:
It was the first.