04 March 2018

Monica's birthday verse



This birthday is the first one
when we haven’t been together,
though we both look out on Puget Sound
and have much the same weather.

How this will one day resolve
I wish someone could tell us.
When comparing to some others’ lives
I let myself feel jealous,

Even though I have advised
so many in recovery —
that thirsting after worldly things
will leave us going hungry —

I recall at the same time
how blindly we move forward:
trying to blame the waiter
for not bringing what was ordered.

But is it not ourselves who
in the end must shoulder blame
for moments lacking gratitude,
for joys we failed to claim?

Were we ever making
the best use of our gifts?
And how does one keep pace when it’s
the paradigm that shifts?

Yet, through it all, our partnership
continues to endure;
and with it redefining
what it might mean to mature:

no one point of arrival,
no ideal spot on earth,
but “a friend my soul can’t live without.”
There’s nothing has more worth.