And Then There's the Love

for Barb and Ed

           between those of the long married or the long-together, a feeling
that goes well beyond love: it's a duty,
an expectation, a promise or a knowing.
The lust, though sometimes present,
has melted into a comfortable bond
that cannot break.
You may think of it as bliss
but minus the enthusiasm, minus the thrill
it produced in the early years.

You see it in my in-laws, married
for seventy years, a caring that will
ease them into the grave to be near
each other.
There's something beautiful
to be said
about a love that lasts to the very end.

I want our love to be an anchor,
its line drifting to the bottom
of the sea bed.
I want to feel
a certainty in the face of change,
the answer in a time of unknowing,
the cure
when nothing else heals.