HOLD ME TIGHTER

For Sandy Shea

"Archaeologists have unearthed two skeletons from the Neolithic period locked in a tender embrace and buried outside Mantua, just 25 miles south of Verona, the romantic city where Shakespeare set the star-crossed tale of "Romeo and Juliet." Buried between 5,000 and 6,000 years ago..." -AP, February 2007

5,000 years is a long time to embrace
with passion, motionless, face-to-face.
So, to lie enfolded in each other's arms
for millennia must trip our hearts' alarms,
reminding us what true commitment is,
when "twain" supplants the "her" or "his."
This hug sheltered them throughout the ages,
more surely than words from all the sages,
a lover's knot tightened by tribulations,
crossing time and borders dividing nations.

Let's "not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments,"
rather let this love keep burning deep within the sediments.

A belated Valentine
February 16, 2007



All written material © Bill Schechter, 2016
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