chancing you.

rain-watered cafe on your lips

like a pavement, it parts at the

intersection where the red light

blended in the puddle - you stood

the way you always stand, shoulders

poised like a battle through an ocean

but the river is dry. hair above

like a fallen nest and the birds fly

behind you like a shadow - it’s too

familiar, like a broken melody from

a song whispered in my childhood

you are a lullaby - medusa’s stare

when i chanced you by the glass

i am deported to our memory

written in the mist of our breath

but the light is green before we touch -

you leave.

---

First published in Ambrosia.