Knowing our lives a drowse
towards death
(attended by dogs
& children)
how can it not matter
that I remember
(day after day)
that one day
we shall lose
each other,
lose the lights
in each other's eyes
to death,
& drift off
to other universes.

Love shall not save us
from being alone at the end,
& the daughter we made
in that fine high exuberance
of having found each other
shall not save us either.

We shall go off
into the ether alone,
trying to remember
(as the threads unravel
& the brain cells turn
to fluffy cumulus clouds)

that on clear October days
like this one,
when the hills were
red with maple,
gold with oak,
we bumped along in the Jeep
reminding each other:
'Wake up! Wake up!
This will not last forever!'

© Erica Mann Jong

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