Life I Mean...

It's all held safe in little squares, isn't it? 

Life I mean...

Square sturdy cribs and playpens to start

Then picket-y fenced in oh-so-safe-green-grass play yards

Sandboxes, red rider wagons

Those were the first squares, my foundation

Our first house. Our second, third and forth

Square rooms filled with ups and downs and happiness

We moved often as I grew 

I don't recall I ever minded

I was a (contented) solitary soul

Pink bedrooms, crust-less sandwiches, graham cracker snacks

With the memory of these

I wander back

To childhood

Letters, postcards from camp, to camp

Letters postcards from college, to college

We wrote to each other and back 

When I was out on my own
Lunches together were shared, as adults

Another square set atop those prior

Taller life grew

Wider, ever more amazing 

In so many ways

Cities seen, countries explored

Careers built, tentatively and tenuously

Several discarded in favor of other pursuits 

You never questioned, always encouraged my path

Another square set atop those prior

Pictures by the pound were taken all thru those decades

(how little I understood their true value as I focused each one in the viewfinder)

Tiny time machines

Rooms still surround me, square, here were I call home now

The warm familiar walls

The endless fields

Outside every window settles my soul

While I sit and peer at these square boxes of photos

And letters

We are in this world together still

Tho we won't be forever

Neither you

Nor I

 Another square set atop those prior

Such a dervish of emotions that reality stirs....

So thankful for what we've shared all thru my life

So heartbroken it can't go on forever

It's always been.
It was before us and will be for everyone after us

 Another square set atop those prior

It's time to gather up the squares

These pictures, these letters 

While my eyes glide across the walls of these rooms I've grown to love

I think of all the homes you've made, and moved and made again
The fields outside remind me of our square green yards, 

For some reason the scent of graham crackers comes to mind

(which makes me smile, to this day)

I'll see you tomorrow

And again for some uncounted, unknown number of days/months/years after 

We'll talk and laugh and care about each other

Agreeing or disagreeing - makes  no difference

Therein lies the best, the gift

Of all the years we've shared

 It's never depended on anything but our friendship and love

It's all held safe in little squares isn't it? 

Life I mean...

Homes and letters, days and lunches out shared
(but with crusts on the sandwiches lol)

Most of all it's all held in the corners

Of my heart and my mind

Each time we share a day together

Each time I ever will think of you

Always

Copyright ~ Issy May 2014