How could I have known?

I think that I may have slept

straight through

the changing

of the world.

I had been awake –

preoccupied –

the long night before.

Then all of this happened on the same day

following.

I saw the most beautiful

woman I had ever seen

in my life.

I had just been drinking

the most satisfying iced tea from a pint glass

in a coffee shop. She

walked in.

I saw only her for a

moment. And then

there was only ice

cubes in the bottom

of my glass.

And then later I was doing

the dishes at my kitchen sink

and I heard a song –

I was wearing headphones

and then the song in my ears was the only song

I had ever wanted to hear.

It was all too much. I laid down

and closed my eyes for just a minute

And then suddenly it was an hour later.

I stepped outside

rubbing my eyes and looking up

and then the stars came out

in a quickening darkness

for what might have been –

just perhaps –

the very last time.