I look
at the legs
at pump number 2;
Held in heavy hosiery and
Crowned in copper corduroy,
Long enough to draw a sigh,
and tell this heart it is still beating.
Consciousness comes flooding in
and shrinks the world to introspection.
Lack of hope and isolation
tell this heart that it is beaten.

I visit the place where you stood
and watched the birds on the lake
That tempered day in June
where clouds conspired to conceal the sun.
Unseasonably wrapped against the wind
you smiled as you turned
to look me in the face,
the heart,
the soul.
Burned into the nitrate of my mind
I cling to those precious grains of silver
as I stand here
by the quiet lake
alone

Can the world change in a heartbeat?
From despair to hope?
From death to life?
From one future to another -
in that imperceptible fraction of a moment?
Despite everything -
Despite the complexity,
the impossibility,
the seeming futility,
I know it can be.
For when you held me close
all things changed.