two walking along,
hands clasped, hearts joined together;
love, the best they had

emptying themselves of self,
adrift on currents of hope

the matters back of mind that fester –
those are never small —
the things we leave behind are thus
the heaviest
of all

they jumped off of the boat and swam;
they’d stripped off most their clothes –
along a sunset riverside
with sand between their toes

and love, like some new miracle,
made each dim past recede:
their boat lay empty near the shore,
but they were filled
indeed