Love on a Stone Wall

What is it about this stone wall

That so inspires the public baring 

Of your private souls?

This sharing, Jeremiah,

Of your forever love for Karly

With the next stranger to stop by?

Will the mountains towering above this wall

Bow down in awe, KS, of

Your forever and ever adoration?

Or the morning mist that 

Lingers sleepily

In the lush valley below

Delay one second longer

Because you, Lilly Wheeler,

Were here?

Will the sun burning its way

Through the morning clouds

Turn down its flame,

Stunned by the beauty 

Of the turquoise flower

You drafted on these rocks?

And the hawks that circle above,

Gracefully hunting their breakfast,

Will they shield their talons

Out of respect for your love

That is maybe not forever, though true enough?

What do the hungry birds care for your truth?

And Carla, why bother to engrave your love for Tre

Only to return the next month with Alex?

Such is the permanence of love on a stone wall.

Even you, who in despair

Declare yourself a “bonehead.”

Why must you share your pain with random passers-by?

Can you not see

Before you at this moment

The loveliness of the stone wall,

The majesty of the towering mountains,

The delicacy of the rising mist,

The power of the burning sun,

The grace of the circling hawks?

And is all this not enough

To make you stand in humble silence?

© Carolyn Brumbaugh, 2013

Graffiti wall at Venice Beach
Photo from Wikimedia Commons