All the history of our lives together
comes down to this –
we hold the pieces in our hands,
and as we’re ready,
we can place them together,
puzzle out the picture,
observe the linking patterns
It’s not so much the pieces
as the way our hands will touch
while we’re putting them together –
they know each other so well,
and they will remind us.
©Wendy Mulhern
September 22, 2022
This work is changing us.
We are tacked and tapped
and jostled and nestled,
whacked and wrestled
into a closer fit
This joinery, of old called harmony,
will make of us a sturdy structure.
What we build upon it — ah,
that is unfolding day by day,
in rhythm and in dreams,
in understanding and in laughter.
Maybe someday
we’ll have time to see it.
©Wendy Mulhern
September 7, 2018
It comes around to
what tasted sweet
at the beginning —
simple companionship,
working towards a common goal
The things we gained and lost,
the ways we failed, what we gave up on,
and what graced us in between
when we were least expecting,
are all packed up now,
or packed off,
and here we are
not far from where we started
It’s been a good life, so far,
to quote a phrase,
a life to keep renewing
in these later days.
©Wendy Mulhern
January 8, 2018
You have leaned into each other now
for so long that one might say
you have grown together,
one might say
neither of you could stand
without the other
though you are both strong
It’s just clear
through all the turns
of life’s adventure
you will take each other
and hold on.
©Wendy Mulhern
November 23, 2017
(in contemplation of thirty-five years)
These days you and I
move forward in easy step,
our common yoke our common dream
we lean into together
The unutterable magnitude
of our aspiration
leaves us often in silence,
or we talk of tasks and plans
as if those were the sum of our engagement
But our hope, laced far too often
with the fear we will not speak
binds us more deeply
than years, than memories —
in some moments we may fathom
we are closer than as one
our life together
less choice than destiny.
©Wendy Mulhern
September 26, 2017