One evening, while going to a small concert being held at Martini’s,
I was just entering the door of the establishment when a woman
Was coming out in a rush with tears in her eyes.
I moved as quickly to one side as I could - to give her free passage.
She did the same only to the same side as I and in a most compromising
Manner we solidly ran our two heads together with a thud.
She immediately jumped to the other side to get out of the door.
It seemed as if I were as unlucky as she for as she sprang to one side, so did I -
A second time, and a third – as if I were intentionally trying to block her way.
It was ridiculous and though she smiled through her tears I felt so unbelievably
Inadequate to move anywhere, so finally I just stood still so she could pass.
But the guilt of those tears beckoned me that this literal bumping into each other
Was not by mere chance, so much so that I now had not a reason to see the concert.
So I stepped back out of the doorway and followed her with my eye
As she made her way down the sidewalk.
She looked back at me twice looking like she was running away from me.
To anyone else who might have been watching it might have seemed
As if I were the transgressor and indeed one woman
Entering Martini’s gave me a look of scorn as if I
Were the reason for the woman’s tears.
I shook my head trying to say, “No, it isn’t me,” but it seemed
A futile plea to her as she had condemned me already.
But whether I was to blame or not mattered little
Because as a human being - did I not have the duty to reach out
To any creature who might be in distress?
I made a thought in my head that said that I should apologize
So I started out after her – no that’s not the correct translation –
I lit out after her, whoever she was, hoping that I could be of some assistance.

When I had caught up to her she was standing on the corner hailing a cab.
It was dark and she was dressed all in black and every cab that passed
Acted as if she were invisible.
It was beginning to rain and as I stepped up next to her I took off
My coat and wrapped it around her which at first startled her.
Then I begged her forgiveness for the earlier incident, trying to
Explain that I was merely trying to get out of her way.
She answered that she too was guided by the same intention
Towards me and she said that it was her fault and not mine.
So we reciprocally and sufficiently apologized and thanked
Each other until I saw a cab approaching from down the street.
I stepped out onto the street and whistled at the cabbie and
The driver quickly pulled up beside us.
I opened the back door to the cab and handed her in it
While she squirmed and removed my coat handing it back to me.
One of the buttons on my coat was steadfast hung in her black sweater
And as we both tried to free the button – our heads butted again.
We both laughed as I said that this was the fourth time that our heads
Had met each other tonight.
She put her lips to my ear and whispered,
“I wish to heaven that you would make me a fifth bumping.”
She moved over in the seat and I joined in beside her thinking
How life is too short to be long about the forms of it.