Yet (For Malka)

Yet (For Malka)

The Wedding by Harold M. Schulweis

They say - we were not born together
we come from different families, different schools, different associations.
You are not me 
and I am not you

Yet -
You know me better than I know myself.
You complete my sentences, fill in the pauses
read between the lines

You are not me - and I am not you.
Yet when we are not together
my sight, my hearing, my touch are different.
the joys of nature, the amenities of life fade.

If you and I are not one
Why then in your absence is my joy so dependent upon yours?
Why does your sadness throw me into despair?
Why is your ache mine?

We are separate.

Yet you know me so well.
In Hebrew love and knowledge are called by the same name - "daath"
to know is to love
to love is to know.

We are not the same
Yet you know me with the mind of the heart,
my strengths and weaknesses
my dreams and angers.
You know me in the marrow of your being.
They say that five decades is a long time in marriage
and yet - how brief it is.
How much yet to grow
how much yet to discover about ourselves
through each other.

We have reached -
the harvest of many years.
Children and children's children now
dance and play before us
and in their eyes we see yet another part of ourselves.
The best is yet to be.

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