4/28/24

POEM - Candle in a Cave

No matter how often I look at you

with loving concern in my eyes,

things could still go wrong at random

  

Even our kids are going to die someday,

and I’m finding it harder to keep

from crying in front of strangers

  

We’ll never be this young again,

yet pretty much everything now has

a tendency to make us feel old

I may as well be a ghost for my

worthlessness, here, by your side;

watching strong winds move spring trees,

and trying not to think too much

about how alone I’d be without you

  

Those wires, connecting you to alarms,

seem to have no interest in rest

  

I saw a toddler cross the intersection,

unsupervised, a solid hour after dark

  

This world will likely never make

much sense to me

  

Your breathing’s been so shallow

while you dream that your snoring’s

stopped altogether;

apparently I’ve forgotten how to sleep

without that previously-irksome sound

  

The irony of hospitals isn’t lost on me;

saving lives, when none of us

can be saved forever

  

And, since those larger timelines

impart a heavy sense of irrelevance,

goodness truly must be in the little things

  

Our cameras have yet to show the fur baby

sitting on his windowsill

  

Tomorrow, I’ll go back to pretending

that any of this is normal

  

Leaving you still hurts, every time

  

But, soon enough, I believe, you’ll be home;

maybe then we’ll luck our way

away from tragedy for so long

that every survivor will say of us,

“They were blest to have so many

happy years together.”

  

For these hurdles change nothing;

we share the kind of love

which others aspire to

  

We remain; something stronger than

the mere memory of sunlit smiles

  

We persist, unfairness be damned

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