Janice, if you and I had known then what we know now
Would it have made a difference?
We knew nothing then, and I suspect
Know nothing now. People know nothing,
Mostly. But sometimes
Somewhere along the way
Some are enabled
To realize the freeing truth
That what we have now
And what we had then
Is the ability to feel. Absolutely that. You laughed
Your enchanting laugh and I was enchanted
When at a party you gave sixty years ago, tickled
By something somebody said, you raised
Your smiling face and lifted one arm behind your head
With the joy you felt at the moment. Your gaiety
Was infectious. Thank goodness I am not over it yet.
Another of your laughs which I think of as silvery
Is captured in a photo I still own. But I do not need
To see that black-and-white memory
To feel the person that you were
And, I believe, still are.
Other than that, I know nothing.
