Down To This

Wistful, that a lifetime spent pondering
the nature of things — the revelations,
disappointments, passions, gains
and losses, love and its sorrows,
beauty and terror, joy and pain,
the sacred and the profane,
wisdom and ignorance,
the essence of mind itself —
should whittle down to this:
a good fire in the wood stove,
my Love sighing here beside me,
the rich aroma of coffee brewing,
a small dog cradled gently in my lap.