Poem by R.M. Dolin, September 12, 2025
Learning Curve
I’ll never learn to love
if I never learn to cry,
never feel the profoundness
of your tender touch
pushing past protected barriers
and unexplored emotional defense
to softly sooth the secret
place in my soul
known only to you.
Sometimes, dear one,
what separates two people
overcomes remediation
causing unresolved suffering
to carry into eternity.
From the R.M. Dolin novel, “An Unsustainable Life.” Darwin’s last journal poem. He marks the twenty-fourth anniversary of his decision to leave California for the rugged New Mexico wilderness and in the process, leave Becky behind. She chose not to follow, which doesn’t diminish his love that’s never faltered. What Becky failed to understand at the time was Darwin was deeply at war with himself and simply couldn’t stay in California betraying everything he believed. He honestly thought she’d would follow, he waited, twenty-four years he waited, and now with the passage home nearing, he accepts his final fate is to carry his love for Becky into eternity, where maybe there its possible they’ll be together.
How Becky feels about Darwin twenty-four years after their separation is unexplored. All we know is she chose not to be with him when he left and never reconsidered the life they might have built in New Mexico. The frailty of life is we don’t always get the resolution or closure we seek, so, I leave Becky in undefined speculation. Honestly, I know her deal and why she chose not to follow Darwin, but some things are not for paint or canvas.
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