We rest at a new border crossing,
Our chipped swords and frayed packs 

leaning against a twisted tree,

New wounds healing with the old, 

bodies aching. 

More battles won,

more to come.

Questions of mortality
haunt our thoughts,
more with each year, decade, 

more with illnesses and surgeries, 

with new scars, pains,
choices, fears, revelations…

More tests of courage…

(Do these ever end? No…) 

Remember this? 

“We have both lived with lips more scar tissue than skin. 

Our love came unannounced in the middle of the night. 

Our love came when we’d given up 

on asking love to come. 

I think that has to be part
of its miracle.
This is how we heal.” *

But my love, you have a 

a wounded child to care for,

your own 

identity, desires, fears, memories,

you protect her

always.

‘I will kiss you like forgiveness. You
will hold me like I’m hope. Our arms
will bandage and we will press promises between us like flowers in a book….’ *

I await your heart’s choice—

Perhaps not forever— but

loving you, forgiving you… 

I will not be afraid
of your scars.
I know sometimes
it’s still hard to let me see you
in all your cracked perfection,
but please know:
whether it’s the days you burn
more brilliant than the sun
or the nights you collapse into my lap
your body broken into a thousand questions, 

you are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. 

I will love you when you are a still day.
I will love you when you are a hurricane.” *

* Clementine von Radics, “Love”