Bellagio Fountains At Night

My wife and I. Our first visit to Vegas. Strolling past the nearly completed Bellaggio Hotel and Casino during the summer of 1998. "Luck Be a Lady Tonight" blares out from behind the fence separating us from the canal. The fountains begin. The dance of the water. More beautiful than any jackpot. We wait, listening to the spaces between sprays, to the pauses between Sinatra’s phrases. Each of us in awe of the distances that will always remain between music and water, or man and woman

What We Know Here That You May Have Forgotten

is that the taste of absent steel
becomes murder
after graduation

or the kiss
forgotten, but stolen
behind elementary schools

achieves an immortality
reminding us
to savor each drink