for Lisa

I find my love in neither flame nor flower,
but templed in solid stone.
Tempered by time and circumstance;
Glowing in the reflected light of years:

I find my love in strong limbed children;
In stirred air and beating wings;
In eager minds and fledgling passions;
In the pains of new people, real and becoming.

I find my love in incessant dogs barking;
In stubbed toes and heatless conflicts;
In a tumult of trivialities;
In the mundane flows of eventless days.

I find you My Love, changed yet unchanging,
flame to a stone hearth,
a field full of flowers,
a bed, and a home.

I stand here, My Love,
just as lost as you found me,
warted and broken,
but, Nevermore alone.