"Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being "in love" which any of us can convince ourselves we are. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom had fallen from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two."
-St. Augustine

Water

“Water” by Roxanne A. Stokes © 2009

Water
Cold as it slides through my warm insides
Water
Water chokes if I drink too fast
Have to go
With the flow of water
Water
In the seas and river streams
Water
Falls
Down in raindrops or
Pours like Niagara
Water
Water baptizes souls
Cleansing
Bodies who swim with clarity
And know that one can’t fight
Water and win
Water
Drowns and saves
Water
Quenches and dries
Up into steam opening pores
Water
Cold enough to freeze or
Hot enough to burn and boil
Water
Smooth to the touch
Transparent
Water.