Year Before Me

Sixty-eight written on the back in pen
and on the front a girl at the beach.
You were only twenty then
with a life of freedom within your reach.
A future of possibilities
for that woman in the sand.
An ocean of responsibility
came with that wedding band.
Out there by the sea
the vast waters mirrored your beauty.
You wondered who I would be
as you rose to motherly duty.
Dancing in the seashore dew
was me safe inside you.

--Shenandoah Lynd