Then and now

I tell myself, in those days

I didn’t understand much about love,

though I did love

(as now I see we all do)

haplessly, perhaps,

helplessly at times,

with an intensity that could have been a key

I didn’t understand love’s power,

didn’t know to use it

so the ones I loved would feel encouraged,

safe, encircled, ready to go forth

to meet their own exigencies with love

I ask myself, well,

how much more of love

do you know now?

And are you able

to shine the light in such a way

that it illuminates instead of blinding?

And if I am, and when I am,

then all those other times of love

will also be redeemed. 

That is the way of love,

and love will teach me how.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 25, 2019