To Love and Not Die

 

"Is there a way to love and not die?" the poet asked,

and I remember the feeling of having given

my whole heart, and how easily he walked away,

the devastation, and then, the anger, that once again

I had been played for a fool.

Each time, the long years after to re-grow that heart.

Each time, re-learning that the only one I could trust

to protect my heart was me - and my big black wolf.

Each time, the rising up again to blue skies

and clouds and the way the sea looks silvery

in certain lights. That sky got me through

a lot of hard passages, kept me Looking Up.

Yes, there's  a way to love and not die, I reply,

when your lover is Mother Earth, when

the beauty and wonder of the natural world

makes you catch your breath in awe

and delight. When a being with black fur

shows you how love is meant to be done,

so you will never again mistake it

for the false promises of someone

who knew all the pretty words,

but never meant a single one.

Inspired by the line from Joy Sullivan's poem Wood Frog that is italicized.