I was dreaming about you

I was dreaming about you

When the alarm went off.

We were about to kiss

After a long absence.

It was an important moment

A turning.

"I am going to take a thousand pounds

off your chest," you said.

I had a surprise for you,

A secret long kept, ready now to be revealed.

But you were gone

After I shut off the alarm.

Did you slip into the worm-hole

Leading to the lives of the other Rachel and Robert?

The ones who are now sitting opposite one another

In a packed subway car

On their way to other jobs

Other loves and losses?

Are you now the woman who does not know that the hand of the man

Belongs on the small of her back?

Am I the man who never heard the sound of her breathing

The weight of her thinking in a quiet room?

They are vaguely aware of one another

But their eyes made for one another do not meet.

Magnets briefly tug at their hearts

As they leave the train and walk in different directions.

                                    -- Buenos Aires, March 29, 2004