At Last

When we come back inside, my cheeks flush with the first sunburn of the season. It doesn’t take much when the bar is so low, the skin is so pale, but there it is. We ran through Washington square park laughing, making friends with bums and tourists alike, proving to everyone that this moment is magic. The magnolia trees are in bloom now, there’s no turning back. 

Earlier this morning, on one of those confusing streets it takes so long to understand but which I now can never forget, I ran into a familiar face walking only the young dog while the older one stayed home, blind, worn, confused. I spoke with him this morning, she said, and it is time to let him go. Seventeen years of companionship, seventeen years of unconditional. There’s no way to make such a decision and then one day it has to be made. I nodded and hugged her, our eyes full of tears, before I had to run. The crocus beds tire in the warm afternoon, but the cherry trees are aching to burst. Life is precious. You vow to take none of it for granted.