Exclusive (Old Love)

I watched you lying there,
I was still learning to love you.
I observed your chest rising, falling,
the contours of your ribs  
and your breath rushing in and out
slowly in the captivity of your body
needing rest, and near me finding it
and welcoming it.
 
I heard the sounds around us
become more distant as we
maybe would become one day.
I saw the light around us dim  
as the sun went behind a cloud,
as one day our love might become
dimmer than now.
 
I remembered the first time I saw you,
how what was new then became  
what now is old, familiar and comfortable.
I thought of life before you and I couldn't
even remember it as more than a vague dream.
I became awake the day you were born.
I learned from you to love more each day.
 
As you rest, I imagine myself alone  
as before you came and I prepare myself
to one day return to being alone without you
and no longer knowing you.
I fashion a love for something in order to let it go;
to embrace a love of what I do not own.
 
        .....
 
#Sharon Olds