Dinah Livingstone
Love and Death
from Presence
The bliss of being together made the pain
of parting that acute. Like being dead
and howling it alive along the blood,
the loss most intimate leaves most alone.
Feels less than half a human to be one,
for love transformed the couple that it made,
though halves return to wholes and hurts recede
and simple pleasure bubbles up again.
These are the unbitter who survive
with memories that are strong but do not harm,
who still enjoy life’s game though they grow old.
Absence and presence mingle: they receive
a bonus, but when birds sing in spring, that calm
is jolted by a pang that dreads the cold.
Page(s) 46-47
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