Love Stays

Usually we fall asleep one after the other
you, speaking into the air the last loving thought
me, left to contemplate it

I like to wait until I hear the sound of your breath deepen and slow
to know the same kind of peace that comes
when the contentment of any creature who companions us
comforts us
in their comfort

I like to wait, and let you live there
in that blessed world
where one knows the other is Sentinel,
then gently help you to wake, just enough to place a leg
a cool arm under
the sheets that I pull from beneath you
and fold back over you
and tuck around you

Then, we travel
together and apart
through the stretch of black-silk hours toward dawn
knowing that either both of us are sleeping seamlessly
or that both of us are restless

but that tomorrow, no matter what

Love stays 



(Em Claire)