Desmond loved cemeteries. It started when he was a toddler and was brought to his grandmom's burial in the family plot across town. He looked at the large mausoleums in the section next to where everyone was standing and listening to the minister read from a book. He turned and walked to the biggest stone building with a statue on top and went over to the plaque and rubbed his fingers across the words. From that moment on, Desmond found ways to spend too much time going to cemeteries and reading the epitaphs. Of course the really old ones were his favorite ones that said things like
"Remember friend as you pass by
As you are now so once was I.
As I am now you will surely be
Prepare thyself to follow me"
He liked funny ones, too. "Here I lie broken hearted, my last memory is that I farted". Desmond would plan vacations around places where some of the coolest cemeteries were located. Once he went to Ketchum, ID just to go to Margaux Hemmingway's grave. He loved The Sun Also Rises and was fascinated that Margaux committed suicide on the the anniversary of her grandfather's equally morose decision. But it was on an international excursion that a life changing moment happened to Desmond. He was in Allerton Cemetary in Merseyside, England when he came to the burial site of John Lennon's mom. He was reading where she was in labor for 30 hours during a bombing raid in WWII before John finally entered the world when Desmond thought he could hear someone singing. He could make out the words, "something in the way she woos me," and he turned and behind him was a freckled face girl who looked alot like Molly Ringwald did in 1984. Desmond introduced himself to her and found out she was a singer in a band. Anyway, they left the cemetery together and took a trolley to Desmond's hotel where he persuaded her to share a mudslide with him. Turns out her name was Muriel but she allowed him to call her Molly. They took a long walk to Liverpool where they were married and took the ferry across the Mersey and Desmond bought her a twenty carat cuban zirconia ring before they settled in the Isle of Wight for a long wonderful life together.Their vows are framed on the wall of their bedroom
My Love
Your skin glows like the mango, blossoms octagonal as the iris in the purest hope of spring.
My heart follows your flute voice and leaps like a dingo at the whisper of your name.
The evening floats in on a great mockingbird wing.
I am comforted by your thong that I carry into the twilight of icebeams and hold next to my uvula.
I am filled with hope that I may dry your tears of jasmine oil.
As your taint withdraws from my banana hammock, it reminds me of your seawall.
In the quiet, I listen for the last hum of the day.
My heated septum leaps to my cumberbund. I wait in the moonlight for your secret lattice so that we may devour as one, septum to septum, in search of the magnificient vermillion and mystical hydrant of love.