The two of them

Carol Oberg

 

920

He said that couple over there

won’t live much longer

too old, too frail, they’ll either die

one soon after the other

or need some outside assistance

to pull them out of

their home on this earth.

I thought why branch out into

such a crude judgment of them

then asked myself why

are the lives most vibrant and lovely

the hardest  to look directly at

in slow, aging decay-

I can remember them both younger

strong together, resolutely poised

as they firmly stood their ground

with a double pride born to reach skyward

and always it appeared to me they

slow danced  on a breezy autumn day.

Now they lean into each other for loving support

their alike skinniness exposed to the world

the helpless bent shape they are in

that poor upstanding pair who once

weathered every storm that came their way

without a complaint one could hear.

Truthfully

one couldn’t see one without the other one

that forever touching elegant couple

of birch trees.

 

Carol began her writing career with Blue Mountain Arts, Inc., publishing poetry on greeting cards worldwide, for many years.   She has been published in The Avocet, Burningword, Harbinger Asylum, Garbanzo, Artifact Nouveau, New Plains Review, Bacopa Literary Review and others.