In Spite of the Ravages of Time

“…Age has no reality except in the physical world. The essence of a human being is resistant to the passage of time. Our inner lives are eternal, which is to say that our spirits remain as youthful and vigorous as when we were in full bloom…”
Gabriel Garcia Marquez – Love in the Time of Cholera

Returning from the shower,
I got dressed for the next virtual meeting
A t-shirt over a pair of shorts
And walked over to the looking glass
 And began combing my hair
Unkept, damp and dishevelled
Greying fast at the temples
And on the rest of my head, but a little less so
My two days’ stubble too showing more silver than black
At the vanity’s irrepressible urge
I scissored the greying sideburns out…

Scrolling down my Facebook wall
In a coincidence of coincidences
I stumbled on a photograph of her
Is this really her?
My eyes faltered for a moment
Despite the flash of recognition.
Lost was the glow of her plump fair face
And her flirtatious smile
I’d been mad about then.
And the gleam in her
Bewitching brown eyes….

In spite of all the ravages of time,
Far too clearly visible
On our once youthful visages
And in our once happy-go-lucky lives
I know sans any doubt
In the deepest of my heart
The flame of my love for her still glows
Where I still burn
Like the proverbial moth
But, also unlike it
I still burn far too many times over
Over the embers of memory.