Potential in a Pandemic


Potential in a Pandemic:

In this time of Pandemic,

my eye catches your eye and a moment and eternity passes in recognition,

in understanding, in possibility.

A future telescopes in vacant potentiality, what if I were in this relationship with this man?

who would we be, how would it work out, what would we say to each other?

 

A flick book of stances with each turn of the page.

Vignettes of occasions and milestones slide by in stop frame transitions.

Our wedding day, the birth of our first child, standing our new house,

first day at school, first argument, first separation,

living in separate worlds,

end of story.

 

All this goes by in a flash as I stand in the yellow light of a doorway

and you pass by in the darkened hospital corridor.

Our meeting of eyes,

total conception of the entirety of a human life, a human relationship in a moment

as we pass.


First published in Dwell Time Zine November 2020.

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