Middle Aged Lovers I | EricaJong
Unable to bear
the uncertainty
of the future,
we consulted seers,
mediums, stock market gurus,
psychics who promised
happiness on this
or another planet,
astrologists of love,
seekers of the Holy Grail.
Looking for certainty
we asked for promises,
lover’s knots, pledges, rings,
certificates, deeds of ownership,
when it was always enough
to let your hand
pass over my body,
your eyes find the depths of my own,
and the wind pass over our faces
as it will pass
through our bones,
sooner than we think.
The current is love,
is poetry,
the blood beat
in the thighs,
the electrical charge
in the brain.
Our long leap
into the unknown
began nearly
a half century ago
and is almost
over.
I think of the
amphorae of stored honey
at Paestum
far out-lasting
their Grecian eaters,
or of the furniture
in a pharoah’s tomb
on which
no one sits.
Trust the wind,
my lover,
and the water.
They have the
answers
to all your questions
and mine.
-Erica Jong