Poem 486

Another from the clutch of poems written in the nineties (see Poem 478) … you can tell it’s the nineties because a mobile phone enters the picture …

We’ll Blink And It’ll Be A Year

I never blinked
I’ve sat across from you in cafes
for a year
your face holding my gaze
hands moving on the table
your phone ringing
with the same idiot ring
that wakes me out of a dream
in cafes now

you looked for moments to watch me
when I wasn’t watching you
but they were few
among the coffee cups
the morning smoke
swinging along the street
as if you wanted to outdistance me
I looked at you so steadily
I had to piece together later
exactly where we’d been
only clearly remembering you
still 
       stopped
as if walking on the spot
inside a jumble
of places of people

we forgot to blink
still
it’s a year
secret dropped out of time
the way your heart dropped a stitch
before you turned to look
at me
as this morning you turn again
opening your eyes into mine
here a year
on
     and the falling feeling
of staring
at you 
staring