Terzanelle for Theresa

Why are you so apt? So smart? I swear,
I might have lost you in the paragraphs
of speech you uttered into space and air.

You tell jokes to the world, and the world laughs.
Who would have ever thought your mind so fine?
I might have lost you in the paragraphs,

but you spoke clearly, poems, line by line.
How do the birds that fly know where to go?
Who would have ever thought your mind so fine?

When you were pretty — always it was so —
you were a goddess, and I became a god.
How do the birds that fly know where to go?

I think of you with fondness, and I prod
my memory for faint tastes of your kiss.
You were a goddess. I became a god.

Over, and it all comes down to this:
nothing sacred, nothing sweet and fair;
but I think of you, and somehow still I miss
the speech you uttered, into space and air.