Love Poem: Quest
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Written by: Brian Sambourne

Quest

for her sister's one hundredth birthday
      a new sweater purchase from a store blocks away
      a goal coveted, though for the aged, no such thing
                                                as risk-free walking

she believes
       self help springs from iron determination
anchored by her walker, 
     she trudges,
     dismissable pain from battered knees
                                     that grind in bone shrapnel

sapped by the demands of her quest,
her return walk of measured step affliction,
        fatigue eroding
"Should I call police to usher me home?"
        her thoughts like fabric fraying
in the ruling wreckage of movement, willfully overcome

she wraps her sister's white sweater that
        ribbons their legitimacy 
        that hold them together
        curbing minds drifting
        daily quest to fight fading

two sisters, resilient blooms
        to rage at pulls to brokenness 
        to slip what traps the aged
        their undimmed merit in the slow lane
        hardy hearts still beating
        pivoting
        in life flourishing love
        that holds its footing in this world's
                                                           detachment



Poem composed: October 3/21