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Life is like a favourite tee shirt
a comfortable second skin we rely on time and time again.
Today I am wearing mine.
It is black; decorated with a pointillism of sham diamonds
suggesting at their heart a star.
I muse on the moments in my life that glitter like these rhinestones:
Suppose one laundry day, idling, I might sit and pick them off.

One for me
And one for you
One for me
And
Here is the day we solved our first crossword.
This is the night you hugged me tightly.
Here is the day we laughed at the whale’s words.
Then I would cradle my palmful of glittering pin heads
Lift them to wonder at the vitality of their lights a moment longer before letting them fall
scattering across the floor.

One for me
And one for you
One for
Me holding you safe not three hours old and howling.
You holding me tight in your fear of the dark.
Me watching you play and dance and ride and smile and frown and shine and...
It would take the greatest effort of will
To send these sparkling love beads
cascading to the ground.

One for me
And one for you
One
Day we spent exploring Cambridge.
Another day you gave me two stone candles.
The ordinariness of life remembered dismantling the star.

Life is like a favourite tee shirt:
It will wear into holes, gradually fray until the day that I will discard it.
One for you
And one for me.
Where will the star-marked memories go?

© Anne Lovejoy, February 2010