love’s long shadow

I never was any good–
at sharing you
these new suitors
swagger with shrewd bravado
filling the barren round of days
with flattery’s flirtatious wishes
can any now be– what I’d once been
might any fill the absence left behind
in love’s long shadow
have they been wronged and forgiven
have they hurt you and then been absolved?
I’d once hoped
a simpler world, for us
lush paradise, or desert, it didn’t matter
a place where all we’d needed
a soft touch, a tender gesture, shared
each, as the heat of our souls touched
first given, the warmth of compassion
then fire’s burn, a hungered need
to stay
our promise renewed
of always