They

Where We'll Stay

Based on LaVryle Spencer's That Camden Summer

You were hit with lances all your life

Betrayed and kicked to the curb amidst so much strife

When it all began, we were two knife edges sharpening each other

An aching widowed father and a single mother

Tempers and tension dwindled and rose

Our kids grew closer in spite of the highs and the lows

I then became the wind that fanned your flame

Realised your wild and wondrous could not be tamed

Life showered us with pain but we made of it bliss

The greatest lesson I learnt from you being this

We say I love you in a thousand ways

On stormy nights or bright sunny days

With a tug of the chin or a gentle jab at the side

Honeyed kisses and clambakes at eventide

Watching your child perform a play on a newly-built porch

Skipping along the beach with the moon as our torch

Strong, steady, all enduring will be my love for you

Though they try all they can to see what could cleave us both in two

° ° °

I'll love you till fireflies lose their light

Till our sun blinks out and there's endless night

Till we say goodbye and time and clouds drift by

I'll love you till we're nothing more than fragments of the sky

Rebuilding takes time, whether it's a life or ramshackle home

Nail by nail, step by step, I see you approach and know I'm not alone

We'll come back stronger and closer no matter what they do or say

Hold my hand till the end-this is where I'll stay

Note:

This book, I read in condensed form in an edition of Reader's Digest and after about seven years, it still holds a very huge place in my heart. Roberta Jewett is one of the bravest female characters I've come across. Being one of my first tastes of reading about how women were blamed for every failed marriage and the absolute conformity and silence that they were subjected to in the twentieth century, her defiance makes me warm up to her all the more. She teaches her three daughters about the importance of creativity and independence, her fierce spirit confounding our leading man, Gabriel Farley all the more. I'm not sure why I ended up writing the poem from his point of view, but I guess I just liked the way Roberta was able to change his mindset and those of several others in Camden.

Among other things, this story taught me to treasure creativity and imagination-never to let it die, just like Roberta taught her girls as well as Gabriel's. Also, the part about fragments of the sky wasn't really mentioned in the book but the depth of their love just touched me so much and I found it truly profound. And as someone who believes we have never-dying souls, the thought of being together in the world to come is always endearing.

Thank you immensely for reading. I appreciate it. I hope you enjoyed the poem. Have a blessed day.