Passing over the Threshold

My Darling, we are now speeding steadily on with open hands outstretched

Toward the dawn of that day for which we have both so deeply longed,

So eagerly yearned and strained for within our hearts to accomplish in body and limb

And I can feel the footsteps of that day beating down the paths of my heart

With a fine gloss and a heady steam, sleek and beautiful in the full power of its youth,

Frisking and tearing at the earth in its haste to come to us quickly, devouring the distance

Like wind in the grass and it will not be gainsaid or delayed or denied.

For the time has come for us to be swept up into its real and present fullness

And to bear the fruit we have so tenderly nurtured, so lovingly wrought.

It is coming in the power of spring just as the blossoms are coming;

It is coming in the pushing, thrusting way of the green things growing;

It is coming to put an end, forever, to the long and bitter winter of nights

We have slept apart, to destroy, completely, the lostness and the wandering

And the separation of these hands and lips and hearts. It is at the gate

And will soon be upon our very doorstep and passing over the threshold.

My Love, we will soon add flesh and hot blood, strong bone and sinew

To the tall dreams we have dreamt in the night and breathe one life into it

And drive one heart within its breast to feats of such strength and love

Such as the world has never yet seen or heard or felt or known.

We are come, like weary and footsore travelers, to the end of the long, dark road

And see, now before us, our place, set upon a hill, with the night fires burning

And the warm light shining out from the windows, beckoning us home.

We are come to that part in the tales where they lived happily ever after,

But these are no stories and we are by no means come near to the end of ours.

Say rather that they loved each other desperate and fierce all the days of their lives

And breathed deeply and lived fire and drank one another like strong wine.

Say rather that they lived and loved and fought well and made up

In the shade of trees and in the storms of lightning and in the cool waters.

Say rather that they were full and true and whole and loved each other like no others.

Eric M. Petit