061515   061524

Valentines Day in Rochester
on the bridge across the Genesee
fireworks popping in zero degrees.
A couple months of winter cold
people didn’t enjoy being in it
love was the inducement of an hour outdoors.
Maybe that night Dave conceived his desire for
a full-length winter down coat.
Kathleen and Steve were cold-faced
Deb and Dave and Dawn and I
after the brief spectacle
romantic spirits without a warm indoors
wandered around darkened downtown.
Before our living-well years
before digital photography
by that time Rochester had passed and
Victor’s suburban mall was selling
love-inscribed Hallmark cards.