sweet needs sour

truth in contrast

my mother argued that sweet needs sour

if it is to really work:

sour cherry or lemon in a pie,

an intensity of contrast

so that we wake up enough

to notice presence since we also know absence,

I feel blessed with a life and an attitude

that finds many glasses that reach to the full,

I also work to feel blessed with the losses I have,

so that I can also feel the emptiness in the glass--

luckily, so far, not so much as to leave it dry,

laughs bubble freely from me,

and so do enough tears to remind me

to remember the losses

that also make me who I am.

by Henry H. Walker

August 22, ’14