guernsey picnic

the milk of guernsey cows contains
30% more cream than that of lesser bovines
but i didn’t know that then
the hour we sat on the curbstone
on a blue-skyed day on that small island
once more waiting for the bus
i only knew that the cheese
sliced by your pocket knife
was golden with richness
that the radishes i bought from the roadside stand
glowed like rubies in the sunlight
and that our morning of misadventures
had worked up my appetite
as we munched away there by the roadside
i didn’t know what was coming
i couldn’t see beneath the surface
of lives that were already unraveling —
yet who ever anticipates what tomorrow brings?
that day on the curbstone
we dined like kings