All those years ago
I stood facing him, my small
hands in his large ones
as we promised each other
our forever love.

Though I left him, and, later,
he left me, we kept that promise,
my companion spirit and I.

And today, on the 40th anniversary
of those I do’s, I will stand before
a different audience to introduce
an author I have published,
my old self an entirely remade being
unrecognizable to the young
woman deep inside who walks
with me still.

How could she know what we
would become?

Through the gauze of memory
we can only wave at
the where-we’ve-been,
keep looking ahead to
the where-we’re-going.

Because, I remind us,
if we’re still here,
our human experiment
continues—

we’re not done yet—

lucky us,
amene.