Lifelong – Vandal Poem of the Day

—for the marriage of Charles and Lucina, Candelaria Day,

Feb. 2, 1995. Terminally ill, Charles died Dec. 31, 1996.

So long as you both shall lift

An echo in night’s tunnel, lift

A child from numbing pavements, lift

A hand to hold back, to set loose, to enfold;

So long as you both shall leave

Proud pursuits go their own gait, leave

The trampling and bright trophies, leave

Your tidemark on the mind’s strand;

So long as you both shall laugh

At sworn lies and their catch tunes, laugh

At all contrived, all forced growths, laugh

From the peaks of occult, calm passion;

So long as you both shall leaf

Through sanctimonious parchments, leaf

Gold on a new daybook’s edges, leaf

Out, then blossom the nerves’ branchings;

So long as you both shall listen

To the song latched in the ribs’ cage, listen

To breath, soft, in the next room, listen

To surfsound down the blood’s ways;

So long as you both shall love,

So long last; none lasts longer.