Love Lost

Drawn together, seemingly predestined,
freewill nothing but illusion,
a love so infinitely rare -
a random wave of emotion
to be surfed to its destination?
No, a power sublime,
surpassing that force binding the universe.

Were there ever more, or more intense
emotions rushing at once,
to weigh and buoy a heart?
Your touch a great clarifier of thought and feeling.
Restraint overcome,
replaced by the capacity to love
that stems from being loved.

Life flashing before me, its
realization of misshapen thought,
misspent years changing everything;
now understanding the true worth,
this offer of life unencumbered.

Every day a gift, every moment to savor,
a license to enjoy life on unfamiliar turf,
nothing more than fearless-
when that felt at night,
when we are all most alone,
a fear so great to be called mortal terror,
made powerless by your touch.

Studying your face feature by feature,
could I ever forget your eyes,
the luster of your hair,
the shape of your mouth,
the sheen on your lips.
This sum of love and beauty
encompassing a dream;
our lives before us.

Thoughts held in mind
reproduced in their kind,
love growing, ever expanding;
your inherent goodness found me in me,
showing what I might be
taught the value of family,
and roots.

In simplest terms my life began that day
though I'd lived decades without.
To see those eyelids flutter,
to watch and pray through the night
that I could fulfill my role as husband,
to be your lifelong companion,
friend, advocate, lover, protector-
that you would understand cherish-
and be a wife satisfied.

How long since we last kissed,
but a moment ago, or an eternity?
Oh, the sense of ineffable rest,
joy and completeness when in your arms;
a lover won, a wife to behold.

The commonplace,
the everyday, behind its familiar facade
being most likely to hold surprise,
the memories to treasure;
rejecting an existence
that substitutes flash for beauty,
sensation for love-
as long as there is life there is hope
that beauty, that love lost
can be rediscovered,
what was reviled
can be redeemed.