once upon a time we romeos and juliets were fuzzy-headed puppies as far as love was concerned

giddy and whizzing through the high-voltage fun ride of young lust

making it up as we went along

clumsily knocking things over or up

weeping and dusting ourselves off

and growing and learning as decades pass

and we necessarily change

because

our seasoned romeo does not suit a galadrielized juliet

and we have largely shed many of the illusions that drove our pubescent chariots

.

still the feelings forged in adolescence linger

even over subsequent decades

how nice it still and always is to kiss

how nice to love

and how astonishing it is to fall into the deepness of a lover’s eyes

and how blossomous it is to be stupefied by the exchange of adorations

and to rediscover what it is to be fibrously alive

.

elderly lovers seem creepy or cute to many

but callow romeos and jejune juliets have no clue what delicate layers

and fathomless depths

may be found

if the search for true love is made lifelong

and the willingness to love wholeheartedly persists