A Wife Recites a Credo of Loving

For Leah, for standing by me



We have everything, dearest, everything.

Time and memory, lots of them.

And the stories that we live by,

The ones that we write with our dreaming

And longing, sacrifice and song.



The days are longer now in these parts

That miss so much of you, your absence

A presence keeping us company, consuming

Us in a way. Nasudi Anchin the angel talks

To you in mornings she misses so much

Your voice calling her out to play

With her mermaids and little foots.



This afternoon, she hurts herself

In that fall. I am her mother, true,

But the scene and sound grip me so. I tell

Her: darling daughter, we live our exilic

Lives and lonely loving the best way

We can. But then again, hope has a name.



I tell you so: we have everything,

All the time of our remembering.





Aurelio S. Agcaoili

Torrance, CA

2004

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