Weighing the Present

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I didn’t believe it for a minute

but turning the corner at the lights

saw him waiting on the opposite pavement

outside A1 Discounts to cross.

 

Though I didn’t believe it for a moment

I knew it was him by the set

of his shoulders and head, that physique

and the all but forgotten lift

of my heart at the sight of him.

 

For an instant he was alive

or I had died, though I knew

neither could be true and pressed on

 

to the post office past my friend

with the present that needed weighing,

more or less knowing nothing

was impossible, even heaven.

 

 

From Weighing the Present (2014)

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