October 13, 2025
You Are My Sunshine
They Will
(with thanks to RWT for a poem frame)
after fifty years, she knows
his yawn is the roar of a lion.
he knows if she sneezes once
she will sneeze for minutes on end.
she will change the framed calendar posters on the first of each month.
he will replace the batteries in the smoke detectors.
together they will delight in a grocery date
first thing every wednesday.
he will get the oil changed in the car.
she will clean the bathrooms.
she will paint and write.
he will garden.
every six weeks she will play barber and give him a haircut.
each time he runs an errand he will ask, is there anything you need?
after fifty years, he will catch her eye
in an unexpected moment and she will still feel
a shiver of electricity trace up her spine, stopping her in her tracks.
almost every day, she will ask, What’s the weather forecast for tomorrow?
and he will look it up and report to her,
even though she could just as easily look it up herself.
she will reach for him and their hands
will link in their personal signature interlock.
they may look like any other couple holding hands, strolling,
no one else might even take notice, but cock an ear,
hear the faint echo of a question, will you be
helpers of each other in all the chances and changes of the world?
hear them say, each in turn, i will, the entrée
to a life-long intimate improvisation,
a sacred renewal of connection,
a call-and-response of moving together each day
into someplace they have never been before
—dotty seiter
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3 x 3″; watercolor and marker on paper
card #20 in a color swatch series
2025
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Notes about poem and painting:
• My serendipitous bumping into a poem written by my poetry teacher Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer provided a frame into which I could gather together and enumerate what I wanted to say at the time of Dave’s and my having reached the 50-year mark in our marriage. With that frame, “They Will” began to come into being; some of the language flowed in response to the frame, other bits bubbled up as I did weekly vacuuming, and still other bits got rearranged when I came to semi-consciousness in the middle of a night, or as I otherwise came and went, came and went.
• Stopping Her showcases a sunflower that seeded itself in a planter in the company of a bunch of dahlias. This particular sunflower was just the right size for posing beside one of my 3-x-3″ color swatches, and I was able to snag it for a portrait just before it was about to lose its punch.
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21 responses to “You Are My Sunshine”
Thank you, Carol! Dave and I feel so blessed at this milestone.
Isn’t that sunflower fun? We had many in our various gardens but I wanted one that was small enough to fit the parameters of my 3 x 3″ color swatch cards but large enough to feel like a sunflower and not a black-eyed Susan, for example. I cut this one but didn’t remove its stalk from the pot. It went on to sprout three tiny new buds at leaf junctures on the upper part of the stalk. Those newbies now range in diameter from about a half inch to nearly a full inch. Grand fun!
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MaryAnn, thank you for your goosebump comments—yes! that blend of ritual and surprise, the intimate dance of it all.
Not only did the bright sunflower call out as a lovely pairing with today’s post but also it danced from Dave’s garden to my art, speaking of perfect pairings : )
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Thanks, Lola! Our kids surprised us with a kudoboard (are you familiar w/ kudoboard.com?) of greetings, memories, and photos from over the years. We definitely teared up. It was a PERFECT way to celebrate (as daughter Meg pointed out, well duh, Mom, it’s an introverts’ way to have a 50th anniversary party!).
I just love my collection of watercolors, too. Haven’t tired of making or looking at them yet.
Thank you, thank you!
Sheila, thank you for your happy sunny wishes! Indeed, a glorious anniversary! The delightful sunflower and gorgeous swatches broadcast the bright celebration : )
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