health and wealth and whatever else

i love young people
their unblemished moonlike
soft smiling faces
and energy, ambition, and their
                      careless
                           cruelty
                                 and how they destroy themselves
                                 just to feel anything at all
but you said you were 29
and you were furrowed, lined
and kind
you could softly laugh and
know antagonism and smiling large
and laughing were the same
and to the same end

when we said goodbye it did not
sting like mother leaving child
                     though it meant forever
we were old and knew some things of life
its disappointments
that we couldn't have it all
and every time we were split
smaller and smaller
that was how we would
come together
in soil
richer