This composite poem operates as a diptych. The first panel, “My Lovely Lady,” is a tender thank-you note—simple, almost greeting-card direct—expressing gratitude for a lovely day and a heartfelt hug that sends the speaker dreaming homeward. But the second panel, “Sand is My Lifeblood (The Ostrich of Denial),” reveals the depth beneath that simplicity. Here Plahm gives us autobiography as allegory: the speaker was once an ostrich, head buried, reality refused, living in “heaviness, turmoil and doubt.” Yet in that very sand—the site of his avoidance—he finds unexpected transformation. The “mesmerizing, shifting sand shimmering in the glow” becomes a place of revelation rather than escape. The speaker blooms into “an old man” possessed of “wry knowledge, humor’s spark, a joy of life.” The structural payoff arrives when “My Lovely Lady” appears and the dune collapses—love literally reshapes the landscape. The concluding “WooHoo!!!” is pure Plahm: unironic exuberance, joy unashamed of itself. The poem argues that a single hug can be a cause whose effect is total transformation.

This is an ambitious poem that takes real structural risks. The pairing of a simple love note with an extended autobiographical allegory creates productive tension—we understand the hug in the first section differently after reading the second. The ostrich metaphor is well-developed: Plahm doesn’t just use it as a throwaway image but follows its logic through, so that the sand of denial becomes the sand of transformation. The “growth rings of a tree” and “desert bloom” images work beautifully together, suggesting that even late flowering counts, that old men can still bloom. The poem’s emotional honesty is its greatest strength—Plahm isn’t afraid to admit he spent years in avoidance, and the “WooHoo!!!” at the end, which could seem corny in lesser hands, feels earned because we’ve traveled through the turmoil with him. Minor critiques: the first section’s simplicity, while intentional, may feel slight on its own, and some transitions in the second section could be smoother. But the overall arc—from denial to awareness to joy, from buried head to sky-raised eyes—is powerful and persuasively rendered. A strong entry in the collection’s ongoing meditation on late-life love.