going fishing
           —after brian andreas, from It’s Fish for Compliments Day

fish-for-compliments day is the best, she says.
totally, he says. we never run out of compliments.
your gardens are spectacular, she says.
he says, i love your sexy legs.
nobody surpasses you at offering countless options, she says.
you excel at cost-per-wear with your clothes, he says.
you’re an expert, she says, at changing your clothes all day long.
you are tops at using the passenger brake pedal when i drive, he says.
she says, kudos to you for your sink trap food blindness.
wait, he says, have we just run out?

she laughs. 
                        never! she says.

—dotty seiter

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Notes on poem and art:
• I had a grand time “going fishing” for some of the affectionate banter in this poem, reflecting as it does a long-standing committed relationship. I’m grateful to Brian Andreas for A Story Every Day from Flying Edna in my email inbox, and for the particular story that prompted this poem.
• With the completion of Speaking the Ineffable, I now have a full complement of blackberry lily color swatches. Last year I captured this plant at two stages in its life cycle but both stages were post-flowering (see below); now, a year later, I finally captured this garden favorite in bloom! I’ve chosen to pair examples from my color swatches series here with today’s poem because the paintings represent a melding of Dave’s gardening and my painting, two pursuits of ours that complement each other beautifully and, as you may have surmised, because the poem is also Dave-and-Dotty centric (in its compliments) : )