Da Capo

"...and all things move toward you."
                 ~ Marcus Aurelius


A man takes off his ring, 
with more difficulty than he had

putting it on years ago. Then,
even what they thought lost 

beyond retrieval was simply 
waiting to be picked up— 

in sparse grass, under the soft 
camouflage of dish towels; 

not sinking to the silty 
bottom of the lake. She's asked 

if he would do it again, 
go through the body

of years they carried back 
and forth between them.  

Now, toward the latter part 
of the story, there is what often 

feels like a surplus of material. 
What they carry hasn't stopped 

its mighty resistance at being borne. 
But he never says no, or speaks 

as though even in the terrible upheavals, 
he could have taken up the freedom to go.