FAITH FORWARD FRIDAY: BREATHING THE BREADTH OF THE OTHER...HAKI R. MADHUBUTI

same love different decades
we've seen the sun
rise
melting loud promises of our twenties
the young do not love carefully,
the young innocently love, often
the young live with wishes of no boredom.

you are mature young
a decade past romanticism,
years on the other side of searching,
months away from intimate hunger,
weeks from assigning blame,
days removed from contemplating advice from
relatives,
within seconds confirming, we are ready!

these are your commitments:

a. listen first, listen last, communicate
b. when angry, hit the couch in private instead of each
other.
c. measure each other's pulse seven times a week; do
not buy a pulse meter.
d. divide the housework
B.C (Before Children)
you 1: garbage, dishes, bedroom, car, kitchen,
mopping, weekly wash, cooking, shopping,
no pets.
you 2: living room, bathroom, halls, cooking, car,
sweeping, shopping, weekly wash, kitchen,
argue for a cat.
A.C. (After Children) revise everything
e. encourage growth in each other. intelligence may
marry stupid, but brains don't stay with pinheads.
f. parent against the culture; if you spend $100 on
Nintendo, your children will become what you
deserve.
g. do not take current beauty for granted. big eaters
are wrong. fat is not pretty nor healthy.
h. grow into greater love, nothing stays the same.
challenge the beauty in each other. fight for
understanding.

we've seen the sun
rise
in you
knowing the bones in her back
feeling the tenderness of his feet,

same love, different decade,
breathing the scent of each other
breath to breath
sustaining the music of bright expectations
life confirmed. complete.
one.

author: Haki R. Madhubuti,
HeartLove
Wedding and Love Poems