The Ways You Walk Beside Me

Friend, partner, lover, companion, spouse

These are the ways we walk together.

Forgotten fears,

Foot steps behind us dissipating

in the laughter of our growing old together,

capable of having too much fun

as my friend

in the garden we long since planted

with the soil of our spirit and desire,

you enrich my union with the earth,

your water nourishes the very root of my being me.

you look upon me without judgment

and when momentarily I lose sight of who I am,

I turn to my friend

and your light is always in the window,

the way to your heart always open

it is you I come to when I want to be alone

and need to be held

as partners

Palm-to-palm fingers entwined in wonder of the world around us,

venturing in unknown surprise in a no fault relationship

trusting we are there for each other.

we talk to one another and I am in awe of your wisdom.

we share our space, I  am saturated with your nearness.

side by side in cadence, indivisible in the light

leaving one set of footprints in the silt and sands of our memories.

I will be forever courting you in delight

your lover

unblushingly undressed before the mistress of my passions,

you lovingly invite my touch,

my humbled hands conduct a symphony of fire.

you welcome the heat of my desire,

my body enters sacred ground and finds fulfillment in your fantasies.

my love lies down to sleep

beside me

the companion of my dreams,

your soft hands beside my head holding the night together.

I close my eyes knowing when I wake

you will be there beside me

waiting as the dawn waits for daylight.

you say my name, good morning

and I am at peace with myself

as my spouse

there is no bond between us. No neediness or wantfullness,

only loving the warm comfort in a winter’s darkness

of our flesh folding over one another.

a husband  needing to come home to only you

to catch the moonlight

as it lays shadows across your body,

wanting always to breathe you in.

By John Howard Dodds