Certain (for Peter McKinnon)

 
 
 

Certain
 
We live on Earth, a certain span of time
but no one knows how long that time will be
and like a poet searching for a rhyme
sometimes the rhymes don’t match up perfectly
sometimes they fall, like raindrops to the sea.
 
Our ‘Other Half’ rambles somewhere ‘out there’
we roll the dice ~ gamble on every find
we might, smitten, glance chances of answered prayers
some fickle tomes written without a care
reflecting how our two halves intertwine.
 
We all keep on questing throughout our lives
for Lovers or partners, husbands and wives:
a Blessed Soul Mate must await somewhere.
We continue the search, mostly in vain,
for one who could Love us and not cause pain.
 
Love slumbers lost while we lumber through days.
Grace calmly surrenders inside Love’s blaze.
We perch on a limb of the Sacred tree
we pray like the rivers rushing to sea.
Alone, we struggle through our darkened maze.
 
A myth is a myth if it suits just fine.
But hearts will ache, and Love will always pine
for our ‘Other Half’ ~ as Plato explains:
are we ever freed from Love’s phantom chains?
Can comfort find us where two Loves align?
 
I searched for Love and I searched fruitlessly.
My futile attempts left me sadly grieved
feeling as if I’d been boldly deceived
swearing, for no one, ever again would
my heart open, no matter where I stood.
 
I quieted down and I bowed my head
and thought how my life seems a Golden Thread
and knowing that, I vowed ever, instead
to work the stitches of my days now left
a most lovely tapestry: warp and weft
and when I looked up to my road ahead
I saw you.  There you were.  Here you are: YOU.
 
We find one another, perfectly timed.
The poems we conjure, steep, perfectly rhymed
throughout our lives, when we think no one cares
and think none sees our mean human affairs
I know that’s not true
for I have found you.
 
by Barbara Helvey Hughes. 4-23-2021