Five years on.

Five years on.

Every day,

An anniversary

Of something and nothing.

Remembered, forgotten,

Celebrated, hated.

The day feared, revered.

Overblown,

Birthdays outgrown,

Candles burned down.

Wishes once made

Now forgot,

As likely as not,

By grand gesture,

Thoughtful design,

Made not nearly

Enough to count,

As anything other

Than an overtly

Ostentatious thrifty gift.

Accepted graciously,

Unless forecourt flowers

Precede the greeting,

And the special meal

Is a take-away

That needs re-heating,

Supermarket chocolates,

Specially chosen.

Smiles stay fixed

And expressions frozen,

As another day

Follows a familiar pattern

You would rather change.

When what were good days

Are clouded by the memory

Of bygones.

Those older days, of wonder,

Before the tainting

Created its poison.

De-tuned favoured melodies.

Buried Glastonbury

In a slurry of muddied

Recriminations.

When Springsteen’s work

Is filtered through

A prism of stained glass.

And Thunder Road,

Like Dylan’s romantic ode,

Is a love that hurts

And cuts me to the bone.

As the music of that night

Is shredded.

Tiny splinters of it

Are driven,

Through my heart

In single blue notes,

That play an aching tune.

Piercing each moment

With a burning spear of searing pain.

To bring me back again,

To the day

The world fell in.

And for all the healing

Today,

An accommodation

Of grieving,

Is still,

The only feeling.

Silver Wedding day Friday the 1st of August.

.

A glance to remember.

A turn of the head

Was all it took,

The image imprinted

On my heart.

Overlain, as it has been

By the passage of time,

With its share of good and bad fortune.

Complications of life

With implications

That can destroy the best of intentions

If you let them.

ever the less,

Whenever the strain

Of living threatened

To tear at the bonds

That tied us,

And the cut and thrust

Of life

Became an unequal fight,

The love we share

Has proved too strong

To be broken.

Through all

Life has thrown at us

We have prevailed.

On days such as this,

My mind turns back

To that day

Twenty Five years ago,

When I saw you

Walking toward me

Down the aisle,

My heart thumping

So loudly

The sound filling my ears,

My eyes clouding over

With un-shed tears,

I am right back there,

Ready to do it all again,

With you,

My darling wife.

Lover and partner,

For life