forty winters

“I’ll love you ‘til gravel is eaten for bread, and lemons are orange, and lavender’s red.” – from ‘A Pavane for the Nursery’ (1954) by William Jay Smithin forty wintersnever once has spring not comeeventuallynever once has life not foundits way through deaththat’s how I know

I hear the rumbling

in the distance, whisper-low

I see the glow

of lavender night sky

now burning red

unthinkable, unprecedented

still. it comes.

I may not see this winter end

but never once

in forty winters

has life not found a way

and so I know

I know though I may burn

away, become a shadow

on the wall

somehow you will not, you’ll live

somehow you'll even learn

to live on gravel instead of bread

if it comes to that

and I will love you then

I will love you then

photograph (c) 2015 Becca K. Davis

poem (c) 2017 D. Ohlandt

please only reprint in entirety and with credit given

#40for40