Now he and I are together,
awkward currents have started to flow
through the society of my friends.
They’d prefer it if they could find a way
to dismiss him, to treat him as proof of my
encroaching senility. They have
trouble looking him in the eye.
In their own minds they are perhaps
protecting me from that most terrible
of enemies, my aging, my errant heart.

But he is my heart’s new protector,
brave enough to offer me nothing but loving
simplicity. I feel how his strength and energy
lighten the heavy weight of that habit
I had woven and worn joylessly for too long.
His love is soothing. He tastes of liberty.

When an old fool surrenders
to a young man’s honeyed words,
to that seductive speech that reaches
deeply, seeking to uncover gullibility,
everyone is ready to interpret the story,
everyone knows what’s going on.

Yet only an old fool can know
the overwhelming sensation
of hope rekindled, of zest reborn.