love is

you walk the same streets

that you have walked since you were a kid

the memories and the stories of your life

are everywhere, the sidewalks all have

cracks in them now, students have come

and gone from the high school where

you learned to swim and first went off

the high dive, and then there was the night

when you rode your big wheel home from

a friend's house, and it was dark, and

you were scared

the trees are all larger now

their canopies arch over the sidewalk

and the road and the homes, it all

looks vintage now, having been born

in another century, another time

after the second world war

you've had so many adventures

but have you really gone that far?

what have you learned?

how have you changed?

how have the steps of your life

transformed you?

there is this new openness

in your heart, a new relaxed energy

flowing in your belly, an exhaustion

from having fought the world for

so long, wanting to make it

different

it is a relief

like a cool breeze

to have love coming into you now

so welcome

why not let the world be?

why not let others be?

love is

a much better way

to exist

love is