If you should go before me,

I’ll re-read every line you ever wrote to me,

every thought we shared so late at night,

the daily noise of our existence,

condensed into keystrokes by weary fingers

I’ll see, in every moonlit glade,
and every time 
there are no shadows in the trees,
that special light that always made you shine,

like bright little stars suspended in a globe filled with oil,
shimmering with delight and forgiveness,

waiting patiently to climb the wick

and burn my fingers when I strike the match


And I’ll hear your music,
which you never knew I listened to,

not with my ears, but with my heart,

and it will soothe me to dreamless slumber

when tears soak my pillow in endless twilight


I’ll remember every hungered kiss and every time
you found me hiding under our oak and scolded me
for putting off the work I should have been doing

I won’t put it off any longer
There’ll be nothing left for me but work
All the world gone grey, the mists
 of my memories
like a blanket
 smothering my tomorrows

But I won’t leave when you have gone

I will pay the tab for the time you gave,
finish everything we planned that autumn morn,
before I lock the gate behind me,
and follow breadcrumbs scattered on the loam

Her need, her dream, my southern love's,
to walk once more the crystal sand,
and lead the sun toward winter’s end

Returning east, she sings my blood,
leaves Riojan wine on my tongue,
her breath of spring and tangerines

Bright northern star did fail its quest,
to hold her fast in autumn's mist,
so now she runs, runs to me in ev’ning

Westerly, her eyes turn to sunset gold,
and so my heart stands where it never left,
in summer’s azure glow, and new beginnings

One day, my love
for you is going to break my heart
Not in the ordinary way,
when people grow tired of love,
or bored, or are taken away by someone
or something new
Because it goes like this….

I’ll be walking along, thinking thoughts,
and suddenly it will come to me that
I don’t remember, exactly, the last time
I thought of you, and in that moment,
that moment I never want to arrive,
I’ll be truly sad, inconsolable
Sadder even than the day I looked at you,
and saw that you no longer look at me
as if you are the luckiest girl in the world
*Because I know how love works

She walks, as in a dream,
far, far away, my south,
my summer heart, my life

A distant star, my north,
has taken winter's heart,
another sort of light, my life

The farthest shore, my west,
the heart of autumn's love,
sheds leaves and scattered raindrops

Come back, my life, my east,
the spring awaits your heart,
the crystal shore, your love