Sudden Returns

            for Mihai

Places we have been

Stay with us

And the people we meet

Stay with us.

In conversations we have

Later, we hear their voices

Again; we see in other faces

Those faces we knew

In other places, and we

Are reminded of where

We met and talked and laughed.

When you live with people

And love them, they

Stay with you,

And when you love people

Any place, those places

Stay with you.

One day, perhaps tomorrow, or
Maybe next week or
Next year

You will walk down a tree-lined street

In a city past

A cafe, and a cup

Clinks against a saucer, and

A wind moves

The leaves of the trees: You

Recall a bright stretch of empty beach,

Her face framed by wisps of sunlit hair,

Her voice laughing through the breeze,

Applause of waves on the sand,

The sound of the ocean,

Again and again, again.

                                                                   KLK

                                                                   2/7/05