Yes, that’s a soothing word, deciduous-
It feels smooth like a maple leaf
And shares with sharper evergreen,
Whose needles even to the sight are rough,
A sheen that carries far into the forest haze
Yet brings you near, as if you spoke the sound,
Deciduous, from a lost past now so remote,
That smooth is no less sorrowful than rough.
Pine evergreen, and hemlock evergreen,
So distant yet so near, still soothe my heart
And smooth the passageway through rough terrain
That keeps my shadow whispering “deciduous,”
Far from our first embrace where maples, birches, oaks
Are evergreen in memory,
Receding deep into the forest haze
Where still the unsoothed heart makes its abode.
So I’ll take all the soothing of deciduous
Renewal I can get, all constancy of evergreen,
For there’s not shade enough to smooth
The lingering of kisses lost,
The rough road of relinquishing
That leads so far into the heart’s own haze
Where shades and shadows merge as evergreen,
Making ongoing sorrow smooth
And all loss so breathtaking near
Love cannot tell if loss is smooth or rough,
Deciduous or evergreen,
As far away as when we met, or here.
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