she listened to the static of the television
hoping it would fill the void of what he left behind.

To finish your own life by hand,
May seem like the right thing to do.
But to free yourself from this land,
Is to imprison those that love you.

you say you’re not a poet but
with a girl like that,
how could you speak
anything less than
the stars?
-a.c.b

The Story of How We Met

It all began in Berkeley, California
In the springtime of 1974
One fateful afternoon
I was sleeping in my high school Physics class.

I looked up and saw a tall,
beautiful Asian woman
standing there looking at me.


She was the most beautiful women
in the universe to me
I screamed out, who are you?

She disappeared
as if she was beamed
away from my dream.

I knew that someday
I would meet the girl
In the dream

Little did I know
I would have to wait until 1982

Starting that month
I began having the same dream
Month and month and month.
Always the same.

She was saying something
in a strange language.
Then one day

I had the dream
and knew that
she was in Korea.

So, I chose to go
to Korea
In the Peace Corps,

Somehow knowing
That I would meet her there.
One day

A year after the Peace Corps ended
A month before I planned
to leave to return
to the U.S. for graduate school

That morning early in the morning
I had the last of these dreams.
This time I understood her.

She said, “Don’t worry.
We’ll meet soon.”

That evening
As I was getting off the bus

To go to my class
I saw getting off the bus
The girl in my dream.

It was she!
I was speechless.

I did not know what to do.
Over the course of the evening

I ran into her several times.
Finally, I was introduced to her.

I muttered some lame excuse
About wanting to find a Korean tutor
and got her number.

The next day she came to the gate
Of my base where I was teaching
ESL to Koreans

She said that she
had to speak with me.
I told to wait in the library
for about an hour,

and I would cancel class
and meet her then.

We went out for coffee.
She told me that she was madly
in love with me
And simply had to have me.

I told her I felt the same way.
I proposed five days later,
And got married one month later.

Does she believe this story?
She claims she does not believe it
Because it is impossible to be true.

But I know that there
are other worlds and other times.

In a past life
we must have been together somehow.
And our love was so strong
That it crossed over the barrier
of time and space
She found me in 1974,
But it took until 1982
For us to actually meet.

And it has been 36 years
Since we met in the physical sphere
Or 45 years since the dream began

And I still recall the dream
And meeting her

I had no choice
When I met her
We were fated to be together

Until the end of this lifetime
And the next and the next