Our romance, far from fairy land,
proceeds within a world too real,
where caring works to understand
what trust must come and how to heal,
evolving slowly, year by year
with patience of the stronger kind
to move us closer to cohere
in spirit, body, art, and mind
- no, not the stuff of fabled tales
(no unicorns or soaring whales)
although enthralling all the way
from what was left to where we stay.

That dazzling castle from our dreams
rests steady now on solid ground,
beyond dark forests, winding streams,
and mountains where we first had found
new paths from shadows into light,
becoming, first, the best of friends
to share our sorrows, news, delight,
until we reached the happy ends
of fellowship so love could start
and we could be of equal heart,
enchanted as mature and wise,
yet keep the magic in our eyes.