Almost Forever

For a moment
It was long, so long
I was sure I heard the air around me crackling
In indignant defiance to this moment,
a minute,
a second,
Which refused to stay within accepted boundaries
And stretched on
Until somewhere around
Forever
Much too
l o n g
For a moment

Then this moment
With an air of abruptness
Paralleled
only
by
a car speeding along Interstate 95 at 95 miles
per hour
(That's 1.583 repeating miles per minute)
Anyway
Speeding along at 95 mph

and

SLAM!

Smashing into the pilings of a certain bridge
Indeed, stopping so suddenly that the passenger felt
Somewhat inclined to continue along his way
Without the car

So
It was in this precipitous nature
That this much too long
M o m e n t
Ended
And left me breathless
And cold
In a void where everything meaningful
Began to rain down around my head
Like half-melted icicles
Crashing down from the gutters of a wintering house

And I knew.
Like the icicles
And the passenger

You were gone.

And I wished
That the moment that seemed so long
At first
And now seemed so much too brief
Had lived for more than
Almost forever.