Then
Listening to the radio
and there they were
birds, swooping to the ground
from the roof above my window
and I look up at the sky
forever blue like those summer days
when I had you for a friend
and was so happy
longing for him.
Then a crow comes.
Scares them off after
two or three tries
and they fly to the steeple
of the church.
I want them to take me with them
back to then, so just one more time
I could do more that just remember.
And an ache somewhere inside me
makes me want to cry
but it is worse than pain,
so the tears won't come.
So I look down to the ground,
where I see a pet cat
lost between the bumpers
of the cars in the parking lot,
and wonder where he's from,
wonder what I'm doing.
Tara Egan - December 10, 1996