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A Poem for My Wife

The Beauty You Already Are

To my wonderful wife on her 70th birthday

1 min readMar 24, 2024

My most amazing Debster, at age 69.88 (photo by author)

I don’t want you
Cover-girl beautiful;
Those women stare vacantly
On the gas station newstand,
While you
Look at me with love and a smile.

I don’t want you
Runway-model beautiful;
Those pretty women walk away
Without even seeing
Someone like me,
But you
See me like I’m the only one in the world.

I don’t want you
Skinny-bitch beautiful;
If I took one on a date
She’d never trade plates
Halfway through the meal,
While you
Share your food and steal my fries.

I want you
Just-you beautiful;
Because nobody,
No way,
No how,
Is more beautiful than you for me.

Earlier version published March 2018