The Deckled-Edge of Growing Old Together - P Gregory Guss

[Larry Robinson]

The Deckled-Edge of Growing Old Together 
 
 
I know my love I scare you 
 
as my energy  waxes and wanes 
 
like fickle prevailing winds and currents
 
as we have now crossed 
 
into the deckled-edge of this forest 
 
testing our 70 years tutelage 
 
of our good and sturdy covenant  
 
necessitating 71 years of discovering 
 
the unknowns were meant 
 
to be both known & not
 
 
 
39 years of marital kayaking both 
 
in single boats and out of tandems 
 
and all coves in-between 
 
 
 
I’m sorry my love, that I scare you 
 
as I falter in acuity, 
 
in forgetting what peanut butter smells like
 
and then remembering, 
 
but forgetting to tell you 
 
 
 
my internal beacon dims only to invite you in 
 
but startles you - will the lights hold
 
 
 
I regret that I frighten your tender and 
 
exquisite loving soul - one that I cherish so dearly 
 
that can scurry-away so briskly  
 
until I go searching to bring you home
 
finding you hold-up into that familiar cave 
 
of self-reliance surviving on hard-tac bread 
 
 
 
I wish that my incandescence energy 
 
could be your warm tidal-waters of permanence 
 
 
 
as the ebbs 
 
love of flow 
 
touches the sand to sparkle
 
upon moments of this firmament 
 
 
 
 
	- P Gregory Guss