No need to stand on pretense
for we both have sat
in the shadow of death,
we have both been changed

And whatever we professed
before that
is irrelevant —
we are in a different place

Our eyes now —
they don’t avert as quickly,
we take the deep time
to let things soak in,
to let the colors darken
in the wetness,
the saturation gather at the edge

No need to hold each other
to what we said and thought
in former times. Those times are gone.
We have today.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 26, 2018