Through The Changing Years Poem by Starfish ZA

We were young when we started,
with nothing much to lose,
a little house of promises,
and all the world to choose.
I knew the way your hand felt,
the way you said my name,
and never thought that love itself
would ever have to change.

Then came the waking hours,
a baby in the night,
school shoes in the hallway,
and bills beneath the light.
We learned to count the pennies,
we learned to make things last,
while days we thought would never end
were disappearing fast.

But we stayed firm through the changing years,
through the joy, the doubt, the worry and tears.
When life pulled hard, we held our ground,
when one grew tired, the other stayed around.
And the love we knew when we were young
didn't fade away when the hard times come.
It changed, it deepened, it carried us through-
and after all these years,
I still choose you.

We raised our children together,
through every fall and fight,
stood beside their heartbreak,
kept watch through fevered nights.
We carried all the family,
the old ones and the young,
and somewhere in the giving
our own years quietly spun.

There were days we barely noticed
the two of us at all,
life was work and making supper,
and answering every call.
But sometimes in the silence,
I would catch your familiar eyes,
and see the one I fell for
still standing by my side.

And we stayed firm through the changing years,
through the joy, the doubt, the worry and tears.
When life pulled hard, we held our ground,
when one grew tired, the other stayed around.
And the love we knew when we were young
didn't fade away when the hard times come.
It changed, it deepened, it carried us through-
and after all these years,
I still choose you.

Love isn't always roses,
or a fire that never fades.
Sometimes it's knowing someone
will be there at the end of the day.
It's remembering who we once were,
and loving who we became,
two lives grown around each other,
still answering to the same name.

And if I could meet you over,
knowing everything I know-
every road that nearly broke us,
every place we had to grow-
I would take your hand as surely
as I did so long ago,
because the love that brought us here
is stronger now than then.

So we'll stand firm through the changing years,
through whatever waits beyond here.
The children grow, the seasons turn,
there are still some lessons left to learn.
But the love we had when we were young
became the life that we have become.
Not the same love-something stronger and true,
built year by year,
by me and you.

And when the house grows quiet,
and the long days disappear,
I'll remember where we started
and everything that brought us here.
Through every changing season,
through everything life put us through,
there was one thing that stayed certain-
I stayed with you.
And you stayed too.