We’re driving
Sprawling hills
They roll and roll
A tiny street
Twists and turns
But also
Wildflowers
They’re everywhere.

He and I
Blue sky and
Paintbrush clouds
“Ireland,” we call it
We’re somewhere else
Entirely
Somewhere far away
From ourselves
We hold hands

A song plays
(I’ve chosen it)
Makes us ponder.
Our time together
Magnified
He stops to let me
Take pictures
Alone he would never.
He does it for me

We turn a tighter corner
Squirming, afraid
The landscape changes
Mountains, sheep
And narrow cliff drops
Rocks, moss
New scenery
I try to capture it
But it’s hard to
Comprehend

At this moment
We don’t know it.
That,
In two short months
We won’t be anymore
Life will unbind us
Scrape our entangled existence
Apart

Or maybe we do.
And that’s why
We hold on.

Another curve,
More perilous
Than the last
Somehow steeper, too
Pebbles litter the road
Striped mountains
An argyle of
Wind and boulders

I get out of the car
Cold, whipping air
Beauty
So. Much. Beauty
And pain
Our smallness
Our greatness

I hug him

Time can stop
If it wants

We’re happy

For this day