It’s easy to love
through a cold spring
when the poles
of the willows
turn green
pollen falls like
a yellow curtain
and the scent of 
Paper Whites
clots the air

but to love for a lifetime
takes talent

you have to mix yourself
with the strange
beauty of someone
else
wake each morning
for 72,000
mornings in
a row so
breathed and
bound and 
tangled
that you can hardly
sort out
your arms
and legs

you have to 
find forgiveness
in everything
even ink stains
and broken cups

you have be willing to move through
life
together 
the way the long
grasses move
in a field
when you careen
blindly toward
the other side

there’s never going to be anything
straight or predictable
about your path
except the
flattening
and the springing
back

you just go on walking for years
hand in hand
waist deep in the weeds
bent slightly forward
like two question
marks
and all the while it
burns
my dear
it burns beautifully above
you
and goes on
burning
like a relentless
sun