VALENTINES 2020

We remember the good times…

We remember the bad times…

while memories are held captive on photographs

and the years flow by like a raging river;

The days of our lives obscure the words

that are so easily tossed about like

cats toying endlessly with mice, labeling

conflicts as healthy byproducts of love;

Over the years we have endured and

lured into our minds, abstract symptoms

of what might not have been meant to be

yet somehow persistence survived it all;

There is no mediation assigned here

only that which was our destiny as if

we had no choice in the matter even

though brutal choices had been made;

Perhaps no courage or honor lives

at the foot of our bed, but the blanket

of loyalty covers us in the winter and

cools us in the summer without fail;

We are with fault and limitations

We are careless and reckless with words

We live on the fine edge of maturity

We depend on each other’s silent forgiveness;

Years float by us like last night’s dreams

oftentimes forgotten before remembered

still, in the wake of time’s flowing river

we will always be each other’s Valentine.