Mortality stares us
In the face,
Refusing to blink.
The long sought respite
From life as a daily grind
So short.
I watch as you move about the room,
A body aging and a mind
So barely beginning to grasp
What it means to be alive.
One will doubtless need to
Carry on without the other,
A lone sentinel of the
World that flourishes
Between us.
You walked into the room, and though I hadn’t seen you in a while I knew at once your courage. Beyond the smudged edges, you spoke of grace, the dignity that comes from knowing and fighting anyway. A certain dance began, the coy waltz around the core of what we knew to be true but refused to believe. Tears led to truth, the bare and racked bones of the many years behind us. Losing you became more imminent, the moments we could steal more valued. I could say I love you a million and a half times, and once more would only be closer to my truth.