Tenderness

The quality 

that I love in you

is tenderness

maybe it comes from 

a long life 

with many attachments

maybe it comes from 

recognizing the wariness 

that comes out of suffering

like the shadow 

of yourself

in a mirror.

Today in the car 

I was thinking 

how difficult it is to

choose one friend out of many

and how to decide 

the age-old question

of the desert island

what it comes down to is 

in whose arms 

can you imagine yourself resting

when you slide

into the dark. 

I know that 

in the natural order

you will go ahead

and the void of time 

in your absence 

is already stretching out 

as sere and bleak as the fields

covered in snow 

if there is any kind

of heaven after death 

then I will expect 

to greet you again

surrounded by a merry court 

of angels and gods

in a glow of laughter. 

Lone Cypress photo courtesy of Clay Atkinson