I love you, you stranger on a street corner
you of frazzled face and polished shoes
with your vente latte and your impatience
the world on a string, incessant tugging
halos and horns and wing-tip shoes
seersucker smoothness and a wall street journal
keeping up appearances
because you never knew the joneses
but the jones for being what appearance implies
is such delicious and elusive prey
I loved you before I knew you
all six years old and careful observer
not sure why tailored suits and shiny shoes
“meant something” but it must be important
because it kept daddy too far away for hugs
because it kept mommy too busy for love
and whatever it was, is, will be, obviously,
is worth the strain and striving, right?
time flies and the flux capacitor lies,
neither garbage nor gold turn back time
in my mind’s eye, in your “many years ago”,
in your once upon a time, there, in your lonely room,
a breeze and a touch, ghost of future encounter,
coming back to hug you, invisibly,
we fast-forward, as the light changes and glances meet
I give you the Friday-friendly-stranger smile
corner passages and mental karma
and all the love you never knew, surrounding you
