the toaster oven gift

I remember the dairy queen
in Cambridge.
halfway to O.C.,
we stopped there once in 1975,
for a cone.
one for her,
one for me.
I had chocolate, she had vanilla.
we were on our honeymoon.
fresh out of high school.
she was the love of my life
for about
six months,
the first of a dozen
soul mates
yet to come,
before she walked home to her
mother's house
with one suitcase
and a toaster oven.