we have had it all

Gradually, it occurs to us
that none of it was necessary--
not the heavy proclaiming
the sweat and length of our love
when, together, we thought it the end;
not the care we gave your dress,
smoothing it as we would the sky;
not the inevitable envelope of This-
is-the-time-we-always-knew-would-come,
and good-bye. All that was ever needed
was all that we had to offer,
and we have had it all. I have your absence.
And have left myself inside you.
Now when you come back to me,
or I to you, don't give it a thought.
This time, when first we fall into bed,
we won't know who we are, or where,
or what is going to happen to us.
Time is memory. We have the time.
[Marvin Bell, "Gradually, It Occurs to Us...", from Nightworks: Poems 1962-2000]