The Best Poem I Ever Wrote

April 4, 2002

to Kerry, my beloved (12 years in)

I’ll break down, if that’s what it takes … I’ll be weak if it shows your strength … and I’ll be glad, at the end of the exchange if You are all that’s left.

         Maggie B, -- All that’s Left, from the extraordinary album “What Kind of Love”

It’s a strange thing,
launching landing-pads into the future,
for a rocket ship
still in the box.


Who were we
to say “I do”
having never done.
Who were we to know
that “for better or for worse”
might really mean the “worse”
and a little of the poorer.


Who were we to know
that we would need
every ounce of promise
(and some carnal pride)
to keep us through the nights
of hurricane and ice.
Who were we
to know, that we didn’t know
a thing of love
or the poverty of self.


Who were we
that we didn’t know,
that we could be
so damn-right selfish
or perverse.
Indeed, Who were we
to think we had it in us --
To shine, were other folks
had tripped,
or ripped in two.


But here we are
facing the descent -
together,
falling at a future
that we dreamed
would be our future from the start.
Could it be
that I have come to love
My Love.


Could it be
that we have tasted mercy.

.