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Friday 11 November 2011

She and I

Amid news stories and fairy tales
news room gossip and editorial direction,
in the to and from of my passing
in glance, random word and the swapping of jokes,
in the unplanned way of elements
and reasoning of a madman,
I saw her.
she was not waiting for me, nor i for her,
we were just passing through
through a nation and a century.
an accident,
nothing more. 


I was waiting for myself
and she,
she waited for herself. 
we ran into one another
and ourselves.
said our apologies.
left.

And day after day
from heartbeat to heartbeat
in the now, the evermore and
worlds and years iIve inhabited
and those that took up residence
in my heart
with or without invitation,
there's a girl
who never arrived,
a girl that went away
and a girl that never will leave
the pieces of heart-made paper
as such I use to
paint her face
from a time I remember.

[From the collection 'The Underside of Silence', shortlisted for the Gratiaen Award 2008]

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