What Chance
You were waiting by a doorway
for the bus—and smiled at me.
And I at first ignored this—
until you came to mind.
I only then responded—
but your eyes were smiling still.
for half an hour or so.
Our hands had touched, so briefly—
with a current passing through.
For a quarter of a century,
I have seen you come and go—
so near and yet so distant—
and always in my mind.
There’s a bond that long has linked us,
in the strangest kind of way.
It has kept us always tethered,
but always still apart.
I have seen your bloom, your fading.
I have memorized your face—
the curving of your eyelids—
your planes and shapes and shades.
There were dreams I had of holding
your form within my arms—
and I always then dismissed these
as idle thoughts that passed.
I even dreamt we had kissed, once,
but I smiled—and said, “What chance!”
2017 January 27th, Fri.
Brooklyn, New York
