Hi, John—
I imagined that this poem was about a couple accustomed to taking a brisk walk through a wooded park who find themselves growing older. Neither one wants to call attention to their increasing infirmities and the growing difficulty they experience in making the short walk, nor do they want to admit the visual evidence of their own aging. It’s a moving vignette about their willingness to suffer pain rather than surrender to impending death—their own and their partner’s.
My only question is why do you begin in third person (“neither one”) in lines 1-2, then switch to first person (“our”) in line 3? How about beginning “Neither of us. . .” ?
I enjoyed the poem very much.
Glenn
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