I am here by your side
I have been, all these years
I am here by your side
providing heat or warmth or
a presence so you are bolstered
or comforted
encouraged or enfolded
I walk at your side
hand holding or none
But there to add a supportive arm
buffet a branch or bug
part a way through a crowd threatening
merely by numbers or presence
I breakfast at your caddie-corner
sharing coffee, tea, toast and bagel
along with consuming bad news with lox
Sharing sidelong looks and sighs as death counts
rise and we recognize our hope to survive
and fear the no escape sounds of the day
I have not chauffeured you sitting by me
as I steer down quieted macadam
You go nowhere but solitary postal trips and back again
I travel for you now to face covered
grocers and pharmacists and restaurants to go
That I do this, makes me closer
keeps you safer
I pretend I am your hero
I curl by your side in darkness
in sleep and sleepless
for spooned scents after sex
for snores and bad dreams
requiring running and screaming
and shivers, which are unsalved by the touch of my hand
or the encircle of my arm
The dreams too tangible for tempering
too terrible and taut to ease
They’re grown from being inside
in light and dark
in sun and silence
in wait and worry
But I am here by your side
and I will be tomorrow
and every day I can give you
In each after – after this disaster
I am here by you side
Where I am home
Where I belong