How I Was Made

On a piece of drafting paper

18x24

Just before the metric system

Moved its way across the North

A young man wrote a letter

Wrote the longest letter ever

To his girl back in the States

And that’s how I was made

She was bright and level-headed

Quick to rail against the rules

He was kind and playful

Determined and true

And so they built a life together

Six months and then forever

In a church back in the States

And that’s how I was made

This is love

This ‘when can I see you?’

This ‘you’re on my mind’

The rushing in blind

This is love

Let the clock run a decade or two

And what do you have left

But a sense of obligation

And the memory of romance

And the children outside playing

The mortgage that needs paying

Was it all a mistake?

And that’s how I was made

This is love

This sticking it out

This yearn to escape

But choosing to stay

This is love

She’ll ask if he ate

And she’ll make him a plate

And he’ll remember Valentine roses

Time takes two lovers

And turns them to family

Familiar, but no less devoted

To bend and never break

Yes that’s how I was made

This is love

This seeing it through

The asking for help

And the bedside farewell

This is love

This is love

This house is too quiet

And all the reminders

of two lives intertwined

This is love