…the memories of the rivers

Perhaps the universe measures love differently
not in years or anniversaries, not in the number of mornings
not that two people awaken beside one another
for perhaps somewhere beyond our understanding
the gods decided that sometimes, a single glance, one touch
a fraction of a second when two souls recognise something familiar
in the dark depths of each other’s eyes
forever does not require eternity, it can happen in an instant
I think of stars, their light travels for thousands of years
only to arrive at precisely at the moment I look upward
the star itself may already be gone, yet its light still finds me
Is love so different? You are no longer standing beside me
yet sometimes your light just arrives
in the sudden fragrance of jasmine after rain
in the moonlight, spilling its silver across an empty room
in the sea, when evening falls and the horizon becomes ambiguous
neither water, nor sky, but some strange dimension
where both coexist, here you are, not resurrected
just a memory, crossing the distance between then and now
I wonder whether we ever truly understand
what we become to another person
perhaps every tenderness leaves something behind
a particle, a whisper, an invisible alteration
in the architecture of another soul
you changed me, but not completely
and somewhere inside me there remains a part of you
something indivisible, that neither time
nor separation, has managed to destroy
words once spoken beneath an evening sky
something insignificant to everyone else
but carrying the entire weight of a long-vanished world
only nature understands this
the ocean carries the memory of the rivers
the earth carries the memory of the rain
trees carry winter inside their rings
and the night sky carries the ancient light
of things that may no longer exist
so perhaps I will stop asking whether love can last forever
perhaps that is the wrong question
but somewhere in the quiet wilderness of my heart
your whispers answer ‘one moment that never truly ended’
©Ann Bagnall