in other words.
bid time return
it’s like breathing in.
that’s all it takes to make the journey.
and when i arrive, the late afternoon light is fading in the heat;
the sun hazed by smoke makes the sky yellow
over heat-soaked asphalt and concrete.
shadows slide between
the people walking into the carnival.
as the pictures play and i walk through the images
i remember you were here unseen
in the midst of all the voices.
i remember you here unknown and
smiling amongst the laughter around you.
you were here
you were right here
in this time long ago.
this summer was yours and mine
wherever you were
and wherever i was
it was ours for a time.
before this
our orbits had never quite aligned
though they had crossed –
and that’s it
that’s what i know:
through our lives we have moved,
travelled each through the other’s
without knowing
like comets passing between stars
but on this day
that summer
at this time
under that sun
through this light
between those shadows
your path crossed mine
and mine crossed yours
and for that time
those moments when the stars aligned
we travelled on the same road
in the same direction
unknown and side by side.
we brushed shoulders in the crowd
you never knew i rode the Himalaya in the car behind yours
i never knew you rode the Octopus on the arm behind mine
we were oblivious strangers directly across from each other on the Tilt-A-Whirl,
in line together to buy cotton candy and a 7-Up.
as the sky cooled and daylight faded
and when the midway lights came on
making the shadows a little darker between the tents and booths
the mathematics of stars and the physics of fate dictated that it was time
to let our paths run out of sync again
to let our worlds revolve at different speeds once more.
we moved off into the universe unseen on separate courses
and that humid July night closed around us forever.
twenty solar orbits later
i wonder if i only dreamed that time
i wonder, ‘how could this have been?’
but there is a mark in me
a tattoo, a drawing
a diagram of circles within circles
of shooting stars and comets crossing;
a hinted dream-memory of a face i’ve never seen
the quiet-sensed vibration of a soul i’ve never met
that i know i’ve known, have brushed shoulders with.
and it is you,
you, you having the same dream and memory.
it is you, you with the same marked soul;
you, hoping as i hope,
that things might just come around once more
to the same point at a different time,
that our paths and stars again align,
and that when it happens…
©2006
