We met for coffee
with your friend and mine,
but I knew you not and in your
shyness you felt my presence
as an older male,
as I felt yours in the body and eyes.

How strange is this: a woman
of another culture caught here in
this moment wanting only
her friend and then there is me,
looking, present, offering bits
of conversation to the main game.

Strange meeting.
Sipping coffee.
Glances.
Uncertainty about what
should be revealed.
Old friends chatting with
emerging memories of a time
and a place of long ago.
And then there is me.

I took a photo and you both smiled
and the smile caught your connection
as two women,
professionals now,
with lives, children, aspirations,
caught in between times
and cultures and yearning for space
to feel again the serendipity when
you were young.

And I was there as witness.
Out of place and time.

 

1/11/2024