Several Times Have We Been in Love

Several times
have we been in love
before, you and I.

Once, long ago,
on the eve of a
diminishing
boyhood, I caught a glimpse
of you,
and what love could be:
should be.

And then, in the rush
of teen hormones
I imagined the passion,
and almost saw you
there
behind a facade
of lust.

Ideals flying,
I set forth on a voyage
of romanticism,
soon wrecked
on the rocks
of Reality.
But you were there
with your siren song
of truth,
of change,
of love,
of us.

Several times
have we been in love
before, you and I:
but this time
is for us.

Teaching

He had often found that, 

in seeking results, 

he had forgotten the lesson.

Marking the papers, he had thought 

that the truth was dependent 

upon the master copy.

In finding the answers 

did not match, 

again he read the subject.

Humbled, he returned to the papers, 

and found in each one 

a version of truth more relevant than his own. 

Erosion

Grey wrinkles on a pallid face,
eroded by the wearing pace
of life,
and the arrow of time.

Deep pathways carved by tears
for loved ones gone for years:
in memory
living proud and strong.

Captured on our aging skin,
echoes of love that dwell within
carve deep
our sense of loss.

Ancient canyons wrought by grief,
as time rushed by us like a thief:
a monument
to loss, and love.