It's our 24th anniversary today - this one gets a little bit, um, descriptive, but it's from the heart. And there aren't enough songs out there about married love (though OUR song is Wynonna's She Is His Only Need, fat chance this'll replace THAT one).

Anyhow, skip it if this kind of thing's not your cuppatea. Otherwise...

Beautiful Still

1) Her warm wide smile, left lines where there were none,
But still gets me undone, like watching the sun or the wind.
And she won't sing for me, but she sings for her babies,
Sings of Christmas, and fairies, of cherries, and sin.

R%. And she is beautiful still
She unlocks my secret places,
Makes me cross and cry and crazy,
Then heals me with her graces.
She is beautiful,
Still:
She raises up my valleys,
She levels my hills.
She is beautiful still.
She is beautiful.
Still.

2) Her breasts, soft like peaches, with cotton candy gumdrop nipples,
Jump at the touch of my finger, the wet of my tongue.
Her alabaster belly, stretched by my children,
And the treasure it neighbors, they are calling me down.

And she is beautiful still
She unlocks my secret places,
Makes me whole and hot and hazy,
Then heals me with her graces.
She is beautiful,
Still:
She raises up my valleys,
She levels my hills.
She is beautiful still.
She is beautiful.
Still.


3) Her emerald eyes sparkle, and flash, and brim over
With tears for her children, her mother, tears for her losses,
Her back, wracked by accidents, still lovely and freckled,
She smiles through the wreckage, no matter the cost.

And she is beautiful still
She unlocks my secret places,
Makes me warm and weird and weary,
Then heals me with her graces.
She is beautiful,
Still:
She raises up my valleys,
She levels my hills.
She is beautiful still.
She is beautiful.
Still.

4) And when we have been there for twoscore and ten years
Her side by my side, through lean years and feast years, and more,
Our time-ravaged bodies will still stand together,
Through whatever, whenever, we'll weather every storm.

And she'll be beautiful still
Unlock my secret places,
Make me fear and fierce and foolish,
Then heal me with her graces.
She will be beautiful,
Still:
She will raise up my valleys,
She'll level my hills.
She will be beautiful still.
She'll be beautiful.
Still.

copyright Jay Ricketts, 2002. All rights reserved.