I have several friends who are going through a divorce right now. 

One of them told me she didn't know if she would ever find someone else, if she wasn't too damaged to try. So I wanted to say, there's an other side. It's hard, it doesn't always look how you think it will, and the tough stuff doesn't disappear over night. But there IS an other side. 

BoyNotQuiteOnTheNetheredge and I recently went on our first week's holiday, just the two of us. As we usually only see each other a couple of times a month, it could have gone either way, frankly. Fortunately it went well. It was lovely, and it was very, very different. So I wrote this about it. 

With so much Ooof going down, globally and personally, I thought a glimpse of an other side might not go amiss. 

When gentle shadows cast

Tall traumas cast long shadows,
that tick past on a dial -
and it’s in the very brightest sun
that contrast is revealed. 

I wake up and without free will
I’m watching for your mood 
and trying to work out what I’ll need
to do to make it good -

but your quiet isn’t dangerous
your pleasure isn’t held 
a hostage to my subjugation -
to joy that must be felled.

When we’re driving I’m too scared to say 
I need to stop, slow down,
but then you turn and smile and ask -
and care - and that astounds. 

You’re interested in people,
and you’re interested in things,
you want to explore and learn and try
and ask me what I think

I’ve never heard you utter
a complaint or unkind word -
you’re always ready to be pleased -
and laugh at the absurd. 

You don’t have expectations, 
you don’t set tests to pass
I’m not a trophy, disappointment -
under-performing piece of arse.

You say I’d have loved another
who could show kindness in a trace,
but you don’t know, how much it means
when the shadows stop their chase.

Oh, they still turn round the sun clock 
but shorter and less black,
it’s your light that’s helped diminish them -
and helped mine burn brighter back. 

I didn’t know - that I could rest 
in the calm of someone’s shade 
I didn’t know the easiness 
of a game so softly played.

You take up space but not from me
you set my crazy free -
you let me say everything and nothing
and be a new - or old - real me.

I don’t have to think before I speak 
in case I set you off -
I don’t have to do anything, because,
for you, I am enough.

You say you’re nothing special
that you’ve forgotten how to love,
but it shines through everything you do
and everything you touch.

So however long we are an us -
however long it lasts,
I’ll remember what it feels like 
when a gentle shadow’s cast.