for Linda

the fact you’ve forgotten my name
doesn’t bother me
me usually the one to forget them
thankfully remembers yours
perhaps that several Lindas
have crossed my life’s path
cousins work-mates neighbors etc

it has after all been twelve years
a younger man and woman
sharing a bus shelter
in a distant part of town
deepening conversation
on our personal lives
the mother you lived with
is she still alive?
and my son
only seven at the time

he you do remember
commenting on
how much he must have grown?
oh yes I smile
turns nineteen next month
and your smiling back
as pretty as when I moved
to this end of town
without chance for good-bye
the powers that be
knowing something we didn’t?

I had wanted to know you better
polite thanks but no thanks
upon carefully placed invitations
neither of us getting into the fine points
of why
the bus stop friendship
enough for then
and now?

nearly neighbors again
though a mile
as opposed to a block away
uncannily running into each other
almost once a week
at shopping mall
street corners bus shelters
perhaps the powers that be
telling us something?


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500 hits as of January 2025

07/15/2019

Author's Note: Nope. lol Nice girl, but not interested in me.

Posted on 07/15/2019
Copyright © 2025 Chris Sorrenti