Shoulder to Shoulder

Months, years pass

she, there

I, here

she, knowing me

I, knowing her, and sometimes hearing

her easy laugh on evening breezes

 

she had returned from France

a failure

to some, to herself

brave and broad-shouldered

vulnerable, searching, sentimental

hiding in cigarette smoke

 

I remember

seeing weeds instead of flowers

how knowing

that she was out there

sometimes

was enough

 

I remember sometimes

she would find a rain cloud

on a sunny day

stand

under my umbrella

how we would look at sunny-day rain

shoulder to shoulder

how I would nudge her gently

try to make her smile

how sometimes, I did