How to know if the choice was right, a review when cuddling after 40 years. The Disclaimer : I am not boasting the years I have accumulated, that is not my intent, I was fortunate and I recognize everyone has their own road to walk. …

Standing in No Man´s land, a charred post views our heroes. The post stood alone, brittle, bereft of kindness, a peering eye. Between the trenches it watched as man´s hubris sputtered by. Raging courage, to quell the fears, it saw men blindly race to the fore, Soon to be slaughtered…

I gazed at a swallowing mass, terrified that I, too, would be consumed. The stilled sleep of fog beckons, hazed anonymous images drift, shapeless or shape-filled, vacant. Does the shadow question? In silence the mist waltzes, in grace it consumes the surface a rolling octopus of fog. It seeps over…

Gazing at your palms what do you see? Time’s passing leaves crevices that echo shattered trails like dry river beds memories drifting in ash of kindled hopes now gone. Servants forever humbled and bent, dutiful in youth, angered in gnarled age. You have served in solitude firm unwavering, yet unappreciated. You can…

The passage of life’s grains of sand suffocates the substance of our souls Wrapped, enshrouded, and consuming, Time throttles my ambition, that tarted basket of hopes and dreams, that mystic cloud of naive possibility. Time stands guard, relentlessly burning the incessant drip of life, scorching the icicle of termination searing in the brilliance…

Watching love fade, I search for a new image in the darkness — You turn slow, the ebb of a tide no sound, no breath of wind, stillness, only your drifting. A shoulder glimpsed, a cheek with loving smile, now cool and dismissive. Eyes once welcoming and warm, now distant, shuttered. …

Finding the writer’s voice through self-criticism. — Enveloping, you drag my soul. Yet undaunted, aspirations rise breath screams forward gushing hope flies in a vacuum, your fingers scratch, your judgement tears. Self, why do you horror me so? Racing, straining against a tide, intention thrusts forward underwater, held, hindered, tethered I gasp for a voice, yearn for a morsel of understanding smothered…

Choices that confront our humanity can wound our deepest honor. Old friend your eyes droop sagging smiles of joy the patter is gone the jittering, bone-shuddering shakes of love. I see your once massive chest heave, rolling slow so very tired it rises and wavering, falls echoing calls of honor and madness elegance…