And life asserts itself
unendingly, with patience and with joy,
in baby ducks and beavers
and herons on the wing
and that blackbird
with its exultant warble
in the late afternoon sun
that still reaches it, there in the treetop

Life continues, in dating and in weddings,
in friends confiding in each other,
in families, in passing generations

And we will, too,
affection being the most important thing —
we’ll hold it tenderly
and we will rise.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 25, 2018