Love Poem: i hope you never stop singing
Marshall DeFor Avatar
Written by: Marshall DeFor

i hope you never stop singing

a songbird beloved who moves with intention
   will find themselves in times of trouble 
   mother mary on their bustier—
   a sight for those with the privilege to see.

stands on a paddleboard oaring towards me.

embodies a world full of pain in their bones 
   and their muscles and mind—
   the will of some force that’s beyond understanding
   waiting for a note to attune to and decides 
   while they wait they will sing anyway; 
   it helps them to be.

i hope you never stop singing, my sweet bumblebee.

i enter the conversation with gentle movements
   loving sweet nothings sweet somethings substantial
   i love them i love them so radiant gentle 
   no one could deserve them as they sing determinedly.

we sit on the dock by the lake and share stories and 
   secrets and heartwants and troubles 
   and worries and stressors and loves 
   from the six years or three years or
   too many seconds since we last communed with the
   spirits of nature or aliens telling us 
   to save the planet and stop making bombs can’t we
   all love each other we hold hands and 
   cry when we need to and lie on the ground and do 
   stretches and quietly sing and make tea.

we have faith the ginger and turmeric lemon and leaves will help 
   soothe the hum in the background of long covid—the chronic 
   experience—life in and out of high levels of pain
   we’ve adjusted to, sleeping and stretching
   a cascade of moves through the hours to assuage the 
   pain we express and choose not to repress 
   we decenter we manage we bargain with, converse with—
   that we embody.

we choose to live life melodiously.