Veterans

It will be 24 years in March; but if you add 
            the 15 years I somehow lasted in another,
now dissolved marriage, you could say I'm 
           a veteran of nearly 4 decades of wedded 
life. Less often now, I ask who ruined what; 
          or, what does it really mean to watch love
turn into a wreck? I never thought I'd do it
          again. Newly wary then, even the mysteries 
of solo motherhood held for me unequal parts
         foolish pride, untested courage. Yes, we
still flounder through narrow, half-lit passages. 
         We make hot soup and bread  when despair 
knocks on the windows. Wars go on, birds keep 
         flying south to winter. A wolf moon hauls 
its mottled halo through the trees. We fall asleep
        in bed—one's leg hooked around the other's.