Together

What can the old man say after so many years to the woman he met when they were both 21? We were both unattached and somewhat lonely then. Ever since, we have been constant companions, best friends, confidants and lovers and we still are. Children, friends, relations, acquaintances, jobs, business ventures, communities, associations, political parties, residences, all have come and gone. But we have stuck together. It has all been said, of course, many times, in many ways.

I looked through her photo collection and noticed again the picture with her kid brother, Morris, captured by some long forgotten travelling door to door photographer in the early depths of the Great Depression on the front stoop of her home in Saskatoon. They were the days of our innocence. So I made up a card showing that innocence in the attached cut-out and added this:

Shirley ....
“What larks” we’ve had, eh?
Ups, downs, in betweens,
From innocence shown
To what we are.
The clock ticks on
The parts wear down,
We now look back
And it was good!
The innocence gone
Yet our glass not drained,
So “what larks” to go, eh?

- 30 -