the heart of a stranger

casting my eyes down at the road before me
my mind swims in a snowballing furlough of thought

my past beside me
tapping me on the shoulder for another look
at the nostalgic consequences of foolish attachments
the first buzz of a cool drink in a dark bar
playing back in my mind
the smooth texture of it lapping at my lips
while the sweet flanks of a curvaceous beauty
betrays my heart
across the room
across time
transcending the then and now
as my mind reels
and my soul whoops
and time is a deep blue sea of reverie
and magic
I clamber towards the quixotic
the out of reach
the never was and that could have been

I watch, transfixed
as full red lipsticked-lips kiss the frothy top
of the luckiest beer in the world
and I am lost for a moment
floating in a wreckage of my own cowardice
stunned in inert meditation
until I see her face pull back a smile
a smile that floods from cheek to cheek
a smile that isn’t meant for me
and at that moment of impact
the man she must have waited for;
a man that wasn’t me
rushes into her embrace
and catches the delicate scent
of a neck whose soft flowing lines
dared to reach across time
to touch the heart of a stranger