Love Even Now Poem by Raj Dronamraju

It sounded like the chants of monks in an old echoey temple
At close quarters you don't make a lot of noise
Just hope you have the common sense not to take nude photos of yourself
The self-respect not to lay yourself out for male amusement

It sounded like advice delivered at key points in time
I don't know how to address you as a person except to tell you off
What you did wrong haunts us like yesterdays cooking
Is minor when contrasted with unwavering commitment

What I am responding to is the apathy of permanence
The 15th year of entwined hearts
Cannot be separated by uneven effort, the sweaty clinging to living scarcity

Here is a welcome and familiar melting of individual inadequacy
It's easily bent with the right reaction
Never broken on torture's stretching rack
Love demonstrated elasticity and we expanded for each other