Nothing More Than Cooling Spray

I seek you still

Even when frustration darts from our eyes

Like poison-tipped arrows

I seek you still

Even when our words splinter

Like graceful trees dashed by tumbling boulders

To topple from the root is normal

I grow tired, you grow tired

Neither one of us is perfect

We are, after all, what we have come to be

From travels that pre-date our gracious first greeting

From former loves gone south or north or west

Anywhere but the easterly direction we had initially intended

The kettle must release its steam and sound a shrill whistle

The ancient and wise ocean must sometimes smash against rocks

So that it can lift its cooling, stunning spray

You may be the fearsome wall I occasionally crash into

I may be the fraught puddle that seeps into the mop you had hoped to keep dry

But that cooling, stunning spray

Let us allow ourselves to feel those invigorating fingers

For they can wake us from our malaise

They can shock us from our presumptions

And break us loose from those same old grooves so frequently visited

they could hold stagnant water

To take the other for granted is perhaps the greatest of coupling sins

Come hither, then

Cooling, stunning spray

Wake us up so that we can remember

Who you were and are

Who I was and am

Gently shake our shoulders so that we never forget

That You and Me combined means We and Ours

That US is something to lovingly sculpt

To delicately prune and garden…even a bit covetously, perhaps

So as to keep those smashing boulders nothing more than a gentle, cooling spray