"Love's Sequence"
By Joseph Ridgway
Approaching my quietus
considering the consequences of time
the incessant compression of the years; while
contemplating our long — ago rhyme.
Envisioning you in sunlight; No!
not with my eyes, but seen
secretly, by means of my soul.
More moon than sun — soft and serene.
Imagining you at dusk
diaphanous in the gloaming;
ere the Darkness deprived us / of us / of our
sameness / and you — of your days.
Remembering you, each day, lovingly.
Until my final tomorrow
when I also become a memory
of someone who once loved me.
considering the consequences of time
the incessant compression of the years; while
contemplating our long — ago rhyme.
Envisioning you in sunlight; No!
not with my eyes, but seen
secretly, by means of my soul.
More moon than sun — soft and serene.
Imagining you at dusk
diaphanous in the gloaming;
ere the Darkness deprived us / of us / of our
sameness / and you — of your days.
Remembering you, each day, lovingly.
Until my final tomorrow
when I also become a memory
of someone who once loved me.
Author’s Note:
This poem was written in 2015 and was not only inspired by my advancing age, but by memories of family and friends who had passed during the preceding years. Additionally, my thoughts of the 500,000 plus lives lost in America due to the Covid 19 virus from last March to this March brought me back to this poem and its message of lasting love, which the Ides of March can never defeat. This reprinting is made in the honor of all the victims and their loving survivors’ memories of them.
This poem was nominated for a 2017 Pushcart Prize by virtue of its second place finish in the Arizona Authors’ Association 2016 International Literary Contest and was published in the 2017 Arizona Literary Magazine.
This poem was written in 2015 and was not only inspired by my advancing age, but by memories of family and friends who had passed during the preceding years. Additionally, my thoughts of the 500,000 plus lives lost in America due to the Covid 19 virus from last March to this March brought me back to this poem and its message of lasting love, which the Ides of March can never defeat. This reprinting is made in the honor of all the victims and their loving survivors’ memories of them.
This poem was nominated for a 2017 Pushcart Prize by virtue of its second place finish in the Arizona Authors’ Association 2016 International Literary Contest and was published in the 2017 Arizona Literary Magazine.