​POETRY 

"We spend time apart
but deep in our body-minds
we stay closest friends."
​
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Ode to My Lover
by Mary Heldman

​​​You are kind to me.
You are kind to dogs and cats (gentle dogs and cats).
 
We love each other equally
though sometimes not concurrently.
We spend time apart
but deep in our body-minds
we stay closest friends.
We are honest but do not cause unnecessary pain and heartbreak,
though it happens once in a while--
through no fault of our own.
 
We respect each others’ beliefs and passions.
We want each others’ bodies at the same time,
and never at any other time.
 
I am kind to you.
We are kind to each other.
Always.
 
This is why you and I are only imagined lovers.

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​​​Mary Heldman is retired from a career in medical school administration, computer programming, business systems analysis and technical writing. She grew up in Los Angeles but lived in Palo Alto, Washington D.C., Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Stony Brook, New York, before settling in San Francisco in 1974. She has been taking creative writing classes at OLLI since 2014 and wishes she lived with a gregarious chocolate lab or a contemplative mutt, but doesn’t.

Other works in this issue:
Poetry: 
​Cat and Blue Jay

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