The Jogger’s Friend

She sits on the porch

Thinking of lifetimes passed

As the air chills

Time shortens for her waiting

To look for me as I do for her

My heart grows heavy as I count

The squares of sidewalk to be

Just across from her 

As the evening darkens so too my heart

Her vacant chair holds no joy for me

Thrusting me back to another time

When I held her in my aching arms

As she lay dying

Soul to soul

Her light extinguishing

I promise we will know each other’s love again

Though having never spoken

As the radiance of her smile

And the burning love in her heart lights my stride

I know

She is there in the shadows

Feebly raising herself

To wave

To let me know she has missed me too

No words are needed

In this love

This remembering

Which has crossed all boundaries

My souls tug at me to cross the road

One effortless step off the curb

Across the blackness

To hold her again

But not in this lifetime

For I am just a young jogger

And she a gallant woman 

Whose years of strife 

Have earned her a love

I cannot begin to comprehend

Far more than I could give

We must wait

As the mist of the night

Drops its silky curtain

My mind clouds

Picturing her pressing back 

To remember

Our love