and yet, love is what I have been given

    1 

        Reading the poet on Nothingness, 

 

I suppose it is a higher calling than love. 

        And yet, love 

is what I have been given, 

        not Nothingness. 

Who am I to argue 

        with the lesser fate: 

twenty-five years tomorrow. 

 

    2 

        Squandered so much: 

 

but most of all 

        those long silences together, 

sometimes at noon over lunch, sometimes 

        very late at night 

after a long day working, those 

        we squandered most beautifully of all. 

 

    3 

        One bird, then another 

 

begins to sing 

        outside the store 

where you try on dresses. 

        The black is beautiful, 

but so, too, is the blue. 

 

[Jim Moore {1943- } 'Anniversary', from Underground]