For my favorite ladies

My best friend is getting married this year! A romantic poem is in order (overdue, in fact). This is a poem that I discovered in compiling a poetry collection as a Christmas gift for my mom, and it reminded me instantly of growing older with my two best lady friends.

Here

by Grace Paley

Here I am in the garden laughing

an old woman with heavy breasts

and a nicely mapped face

how did this happen

well that’s who I wanted to be

at last    a woman

in the old style   sitting

stout thighs apart under

a big skirt   grandchildren sliding

on   off my lap   a pleasant

summer perspiration

that’s my old man across the yard

he’s talking to the meter reader

he’s telling him the world’s sad story

how electricity is oil or uranium

and so forth   I tell my grandson

run over to your grandpa   ask him

to sit beside me for a minute   I

am suddenly exhausted by my desire

to kiss his sweet explaining lips