Today we celebrated twenty-nine years
(One day shy, to beat predicted rain)
Together in the easy way we share
Our days – the comfort we maintain
Through our routines, our challenges, and here
This day we set aside to mark another year.

What holds us close? More than familiarity
inertia, or the fear of something new
A confluence more than a similarity
Of life perspectives, faith, and point of view
As hands may clasp while thoughts are worlds away
Some elemental gravitation
Makes us stay.

We’ve built a store of comfort through our sharing
Of hopes and fantasies, and wild imagination
We each have crossed, with trepidatious daring
A chasm of our fear and separation
So though we move on different planes, we each
Can move into each other’s inner space.

Most of all, I celebrate today
The deepening within us that has risen
From saying yes, no matter what, I’ll stay
I’ll hold with you, I’ll keep your perfect vision
That keeping makes us shine like pearls
That form to soothe abrasion, like lights
That hold up worlds.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 24, 2011