dark clouds loom overhead

it has been quite a rainy summer. literally and figuratively.

i only confirmed today what i hoped was just another false alarm. and though it's nothing new or unprecedented, it still fills me with shock. ma'am beni says this year seems wrought with bad news and more bad news. i love her to bits but i do hope that, just this once, she's wrong.

to love:

You Shall Be Free
Trinidad Tarrosa-Subido

I will not hold you by restraining hands
Nor yet by tears that silently accuse.
You shall be free—like waters on the strands
That come, and go, and tarry as they choose.
I will not speak of days sweet to remember,
Of lanes we trod through April sun and shower,
Of twilight trysts through early-starred November,
Prolonged each twilight by an evening hour—
No, not a word to hint of that or this,
Lest speaking so, your going I impede.
I will resign myself to all that is—
Like unto sands when cooling waves recede.
O while the strength of seeing love undone
Still stands by me, I pray you, Love, be gone.