She was talking to me about something
And I didn’t really care anyway
I was just happy to have the company
And conversation
Like a movie that would be impossible to make now
And somewhere a plane was taking off
And she trailed off,
Left off,
Manufactured a stoppage to her rhetoric and
Withheld the remainder of
What she thought she’d say
And she smiled at me and walked away
And I’d never realized it before
But she was conferring with her God
And she wanted to keep that story to herself
Like the folklore that defines us and
Makes us who we are
When nothing else is working and
I didn’t know it but I still had
A lot more sinews to grind,
More blood to give and more
Love to waste on the way to this
Rainy, cool August night
At my respite two miles out of town