A Chance Encounter
by MFrostDelaney

I saw him at the market yesterday
just after bread, before the produce aisle,
a corner turned, then quickly turned away.
Can I escape? Or should I simply smile?

Too late. He saw me too. I felt his stare.
So we exchanged a long and awkward look.
Then suddenly, my old emotions bare,
my guard escaped.
                              A smile. That’s all it took.

We uttered pleasantries, the decades gone
as if the day we met came back to us,
his dark eyes locked on mine, and mine upon
his Fogerty mustache, his hair a muss.

Of all the things he could have said, what came–
the night we slept on Hampton Beach, our bed,
the bliss.
                 He had no need to point the blame
why we broke up. That all was gone. Instead …

Remember how we woke to gulls in flight?
Oh yes, they had the day. But not our night.



 

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