with all those popular songs of magical new love
or ones of their breakups and makeups
why we don’t hear ballads of affection
that have lasted thirty forty fifty years?
because old lovers hum
to a track without words
or a melody to follow
as if two tuning forks could make us
smile and bob our heads to a beat
or tap our feet to a vibration
their music lives within the breath
sung the way you’d murmur
a secret into a familiar ear
warm and almost touching