Rocket Science

Rocket Science

You will remember her all the days of your life,
perhaps think about her accidentally,
hearing a similar voice, seeing a similar face,
this song, that movie, this drink, that food.
Or intentionally, on her birthday,
at this restaurant, that bar, this park, that beach –
you know exactly why you go there.
From time to time may be too often for your own good, probably,
how you will try too much to picture what she looks like now –
hopefully better than you have aged, you muse –
what her work life has been, if she is retired now, too;
how her love life went, and the kind of man she married;
did she have children and, if so, how they have fared.
And all of these small reflections will pass through your mind,
in what seem mere seconds, but those moments
will all add up over the years, and by the end,
they will have whiled away more hours than you can believe.
Every once in a while, too, you will take one of those moments
to wonder if she ever thinks of you in a similar way,
and who knows but this may end up the lion’s share
of those dreamings of her passing through your lifetime.

(a box of old letters)