He’s such a contradiction,
and confuses my heart
He walks where he will
keeps a calendar apart
I devour stacks of words,
he reads books of numbers.
And so we seldom share
our thoughts——just close, and pull up, covers.
It seems I’m always leading
he trails me when we leave.
So far ahead, I turn,
and see my stress is unperceived.
Yet during times of crisis,
pain that others cause me
captures his attention
and lights a flame of loyalty.
And therein lies the quandary
the baffling mystery:
how could one so loyal
have lived his life so separately?
In searching for the answer
I find him at a pond
bending down and staring
at white jonquils
floating
all around.
