No longer licking ice cream on a sunny summer afternoon

By a pond whose surface is so tranquil and undisturbed

Her gray-tinged hair, her loving, understanding smile

Hands, tiny linked with large



No longer strolling along a beach arm in arm

Under a peaceful sky of moon, stars, galaxies

Pale, soft radiant is her skin, hair, eyes

A tender caress, a knowing gaze, a gentle kiss



No longer running after little ones in a field

Among grass, flowers, trees blowing softly in the breeze

Innocent laughter accompanied by uncontrolled giggling

Pushing her swing up, up into the sky with limbs outstretched



Childhood, youth, maturity

How quickly lost, how easily recalled, how eternally entwined