bruce and i celebrate our 23rd anniversary on july 13th, 2002. (that’s the approximate equivalent of 149 “straight” years.)
so this month’s poem is one of many he’s inspired over the course of our relationship …
life is a hard country
full of rough rock
and flinty shale
ready to cover
the tentative trial
carved by faltering pioneers
who traveled through
in earlier years
no matter what marks
they left on the stone
made from their very blood
or bone
we still pick our way
through the rocks alone
the canyons seem endless
as we crush on through
but life’s hardest journeys
are softened by you
life’s a sharp edge
a razor-like line
where we balance
like angels
awaiting a sign
that it’s okay to move
from the head of the pin
some little assurance
that we won’t fall in
to the forest of spikes
growing below
ready to slice us
finer than snow
each day’s a knife
steely and new
but life’s sharpest edges
are softened by you
life’s a rough cloth
scratchy and coarse
and we fashion protection
from its prickly weave
hoping the cover
will leave us
some comfort
grant us reprieve
from hard roads
and sharp edges
but the fabric can itch
and seams can undo
still life’s harshest textures
are softened by you