In the Movies, No One Ever Ages

I wish I could say the same for me, but that’s

what’s so wonderful about the movies. The people

on the screen remain as they were, their moments

of youth and beauty captured forever, yet for me, when I look back at our lives, you are caught

in a freeze-frame, the light coming off you,

the planes of your handsome face,

your perfect, muscular body.  Do you remember walking through the NY Botanical Gardens? You

your mind filled with facts like an encyclopedia,

your photographic memory, told me all about

the flowers and birds and the trees inside the towering greenhouses. We walked and kissed behind

the exuberant vegetation of the African rainforest, tropical birds skimming the air above our heads. 

Do you remember the Pete Seeger concert

at Columbia too and how exciting

it was to hear Seeger sing in person

rather than only on the radio or a record? 

We walked together across that moonlit campus.

Time is an empty vase, a sieve

that leaves nothing behind except a few moments,

perfect as gold beads.  It is these moments that I hold

in my hand when I see you now struggling to win

against a disease that has robbed you of almost everything, each day, one less thing you can do,

though when you hold my hand when you put

your frail arms around me, I know again how

fortunate we are, who even after forty years,

can find solace in one another’s arms.

Maria Mazziotti Gillan