I need to get serious

I should be working,

not thinking what it’d be like
to watch the Bills-Packers game
with Thérèse the Little Flower.

A wood-paneled basement
with the heat turned up. 

A TV tray with crackers
and shrimp dip between
our matching recliners. 

Thérèse smiling over
a forward pass, a screen play. 

Thérèse wincing at a body block.

Thérèse shushing me as I
explain unnecessary roughness.

She reminds me I sleep so much
not because I’m tired,
what I really want is peace,

and closes her eyes, smiles again.

In this room, no darkness will
enter my mind, just warm
air and tchotchkes and her smile

like sunlight on a blossoming wound.

Outside, a snowbank,
the moon over a lake of ice,
skeletons of trees.

Someone told me feelings are 
unimportant in the spiritual life.