Abby

Two velvet ears that caught each sound—
one pricked to heaven, one earthbound—
she kept her vigil at the stair,
a sentinel of evening prayer.

Each dusk she stationed, small and true,
until the door released her view:
the boy whose heartbeat matched her own,
the only heaven she had known.

Now golden light receives her wait,
no stairs, no door, no latching gate—
yet still she listens through the gleam
for footsteps threading through the dream.

Beyond the stars, past rainbow's arc,
her ears still turn toward love's remark,
that sideways tilt, that comic grace,
devotion written on her face.

Five years of fierce and tender guard,
five years of loving, brave and hard—
now clouds arrange themselves to show
the way she knew which way to go.