February #3

The next time

The next time you’re late

I hope it’s for a great reason,

something spectacular

nothing trivial, or mundane

but a cataclysmic intervention

that entirely distracted you

because it was so wonderful

it swept every commitment,

appointment, chore, plan,

timetable away in a tsunami

of delightful experience

and left you just enough breath

to explain eventually with a red face

not from embarrassment but

excitement that THIS could have

happened at all and I will be

so entranced by your story
I won’t mind one bit and I won’t

need to be gracious and forgiving

the way you need to be now

because I don’t have a

whirlwind reason or

breath taking

excuse

just a brain

that loses track

so often

I spend most days

off the rails.

 — Michele Brenton