We Are Together
By John Herlihy

You are . . .
The footsteps that I follow,
The virtue in my pain,
The humility in my pride,
The success in my gain.
You are . . .
The voice with which I speak,
The eye with which I see,
The hand with which I work,
The pathway whose journey I keep.
You are . . .
The joy with which I play,
The character in the narrative I portray,
The blanket of my sometime sadness,
The wings of my soaring happiness.

You are . . .
As quiet as warm dust under my feet,
As wild as remote corners of the woods,
As alone as the pine-covered mountain,
As lonely as the rain-drenched fir tree.
You are . . .
As solitary as the dark alleyways of cedars.
As final as the narrow country road.
As melancholy as the half moon.
As mysterious as the ebony night.
You are . . .
As unlikely as red roses in winter,
As predictable as crocuses in spring,
As annoying as swamp flies in summer,
As colorful as falling leaves that autumn brings.

I think of thee, my soul mate,
As angelic as a divine envoy in God’s sight.
We gaze into the future of what might be,
Waiting for nothing any human can see.
What is it about the intangible
That holds us in our prime?
What is it about the invisible
That I can claim only as mine?
Faith smiles knowingly and opens the door;
Hope takes us by the hand and leads the way;
Love sculpts us into a pearl of great beauty;
Death washes us away on a distant shore.

Together we enter another realm altogether,
A realm fitting the love we have shared together.
We are shaped into a sculpture by all that we do;
We gratefully accept anything that may yet ensue,
We are together, not alone, in God’s mysterious brew;
Together we will go forward into the descending dew.