My Daughter’s Fortieth Birthday in Santa Fe by Jan Chronister

–After “Motion”

My husband buys
a silver replacement
for his gold wedding ring
cut off at the hospital
when his finger swelled.
I select a wraparound one
in case that happens to me.

We visit St. Francis Cathedral,
read historical signs
on the oldest building in town,
eat at a plaza café. My husband
gets a nosebleed at the Georgia O’Keefe museum,
due, no doubt, to the altitude.

Daughter drives us back to her
Albuquerque home
at the foot of Sandia Peak.
I walk a trail
where mountainside clefts
resemble labia.
At dusk, sunset hues
reflect on the eastern range,
conifer shadows, some say,
look like watermelon seeds
in pink flesh.

I want to go back,
watch Sandia grow dark,
see my body in granite rifts, visit O’Keefe’s ranch
near Abiquiu,
buy another silver ring
I can wear until I die.