After the Break
Since human life is progress preordained
By God — who gave that life to each of us —
Let us not, in the embers of our love,
Allow self-pity to embitter us.
You to your nursing, I my books, should turn
And, in those comforts, that sure solace find
Which we no longer can each other give.
Let us be friends and unafraid to meet —
Linked by our children’s lives and interests —
Encouraged by the recollections warm
Of happy times that once we gladly shared,
Though never may return to in our age.
So, through the ordered progress of our lives
We may attain contentment and release.
