But it’s not as though I don’t want
to remember that early evening in college when
Bob and I decided to walk fifteen miles
up into the Green Mountains. That
weightless night spring was untroubled
clothed in laughter because we owned time
giddiness an attempt to escape
our sheltered cocoons. The sky warmed up
with early light as we struck the high meadows
woods the stream where we caught rainbow trout.

When we are born next time we’ll understand more
about pain and loss when you finally give up all hope
and slide straight down into a lake your last breath
bathed in tears. We’ll walk far beyond the campus
get married have children and love as never before.

Donald Everett Axinn
From Walking Through the Night