A New Definition of Forever

Dim lights. Tom Petty plays on the jukebox.
Coffee at my side. Bacon sizzling on the grill.
Half a dozen folks across the room.

It is a quiet life I lead. Simple.
Less. A kind of life many would find
untenable. Dull. Certainly different

than the one I once lived.

Don’t get me wrong.
I have loved all my lives,
except for a brief excursion into darkness,

I have found joy in them, busy or quiet.
Equally uncomfortable in them all, just enough
to grow. Sometimes well. Sometimes less so.

Love too, I have found. More varieties
than I would have imagined. All flawed,
But then, what love is not?

Your house is maybe six, seven miles from here.
The woman you love is there.
She will be there when you return, the gift

you may or may not deserve, she grounds
your solitary nature, nurtures your compassion,
gently fills your flaws.

I am not one to believe in love at first sight.
I am not one to believe one completes the other.
but she has changed the way I see.

finishing
a decade of resurrections
simply by being.

The song changes on the diner’s stereo.
I smile, content in my solitariness,
knowing it is not forever.

About this poem

This did not start out as a love poem. But here we are.

Tom