A Word for Living Creatures

Our final walk together -

you are leaving.

I don’t know it yet,

haven’t even thought

of the possibility.

You are with me,

and I am with you.

I am taken with you,

the light falling

across your forehead

- just so -

the first star we see,

the one upon which

we refuse to wish -

stars are treacherous,

always extinguishing

or falling to earth -

but we still remark upon 

its seeming constancy,

its unswerving loyalty

to the night sky

or the rising half-moon

or the promise

of a new sunrise

or to us, two people

who are saying goodbye

without knowing it.