Sunday, July 27, 2008

On losing a friend

suddenly the transition between is and was
is like learning past tense in a foreign language
(when did "we are so close" become "we were so close?")
training my brain to naturally say
I was you were he was

while thinking about the strangeness of that foggy place
where the present is sloughed off
in a seedy bus terminal
of departures marked by tears
or by shouting and spite

and in the tumult there is me,
dry-eyed, shoulders sagging as I watch you retreat
fading into past tense
as the back of your head becomes lost in the crowd

later, alone on a train headed home
I'll watch dusky backyards through my reflection
in the window and conjugate, murmuring
you were he was we were

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