Keith and I became sweethearts when we were just seventeen. We made little money and agreed on our very first Valentine’s day that we would set a $2.00 limit on gifts. We have honored that limit for over 50 years now. It has yielded imaginative gifts: drawings, paintings, and poems. Then there have been assorted candy bars, flower seeds, cream puffs, and a few gifts too raucous to mention.

$2.00 is a lot to work with when you’re in love.

This year, it was on the table with a Valentine card when I woke up. Keith grew a little flower for me in the basement and picked it this morning. I wrote him a poem called “Eat the Same Chickens” (which might be the best line of poetry I’ve ever written). The photo above my poem is the little lavender flower Keith gave me.