I.

I depart with stories 

Of you rinsing your father’s dead body,

He was 86,

You had to  dig his grave before night fall 

Or else your mother’s wail would pierce the night

Working in a hospice thereafter,

You see him in every patients you care

They are all the same:

They start to forget days—

Past, 

Present, 

Future---

Are all one,

Memories creep and spiral,

Comfort and abandon

They forget names and places,

What to live for,

Then to breathe

Because it is beyond understanding

Other than it's food for the soul

You withdrew from the world,

Stopped reading books 

The moment they mentioned 

Decay, 

Departure, 

Farewell,

Until they piled up in one corner 

They could be your bed at night

You are right,

We can only attempt— 

Even though we know we will fail—

To understand 

Why life and death,

Joy and pain

Are intricately linked to each other,

That we have no choice but to go on

Because to live is to love

And to love is to live

II.

We left our homes long ago 

To burn cities and build gentler ones,

Returned our bodies 

To fetal 

To remember softness 

And weep,

To be kind and forgiving,

We already got this far

There is nothing we cannot stand

We found each other 

When we were both lost

There will be grace 

As we choose to be together,

Our assurance lies not in promises

But in faith

III.

You said, 

“In this world the good man always win,

Somewhere out there, 

There is a lover looking,

Both of us just missed to take the same train 

I am three minutes late,

Remember a poet said, 

“Lovers do not meet

They are with each other all along””

I replied,

“But I’ve been keeping my lover

For too many years, 

I am cracking, 

Would I be spilling gold?

I long for my heart to be crowned, 

Tell me, 

How could I be kind to myself?”

IV.

We both know how this will end

Time will do what it does best:

Give us admission and memory

Do not worry about me

I’ve learned over the years 

To expand my heart 

To take in everything life couldn’t willingly give

We build all these walls around us 

But it always finds its way to sip through cracks,

It wants what it wants,

We cannot deny it of its function:

To keep us away from dying slowly, 

To throw sensible advice, 

And to find perfect sense in irrationality

V.

Be brave for there are things meant to end 

And meant to begin

We can waste our youth 

To a worthy mistake

Future is where everything goes

Let your rib cage gather hundreds of birds 

And let their wings flutter

Clench your teeth,

We can rebuild this world

In our own liking

We can command 

Thousands of our selves 

To fight, die, and discover dignity 

To find solace and tenacity

To be who we are

VI.

He no longer wants 

To look in strange places

He would rather choose this 

Because everything is work

It is not for everyone

But for the selfless,

Repentant,

Forgiving,

Chosen,

He knows it would never be easy 

They would always come short 

But there is surrender

They could make their skins transparent 

So they could see the beating heart 

For all it is

Here and now---

That's how they should live,

Marvel at infinity in the finite,

Hold eternity in a moment,

Is this not when we are truly loving 

When we do not belong and possess?;

When we allow ourselves to just be?

When we are together neither 

In a point of departure or arrival;

When we are simply at home?