A Beautiful Mess

A Beautiful Mess,

this life, one day a call for brain scan
and plans for neurosurgery, days
later, a second scan, the findings 

artifactual and unremarkable. Yes,                               
beautiful and messy. Like love. A love-
at-first-sight kind of love, as frightening

and exhilarating as a plane in a tailspin
over the ocean; like roses scattered
on the carpet after the wedding; like x's 

and o's under the fiery, exfoliating skin 
of the river bank's paper-bark maple.