9

When we first met, I was just young, I thought I could come and go without a thought. I considered everything just part of The Big Gig. Love and music on the lawn. All around me people just seemed to be enjoying life going by. But when Phil decided he was going to become a stranger it gave me my first clue. When I first met Phil he reminded me of a For Sale sign, his smile a straight-across thick line. Behind it he was sparse and beautiful. Today I am carefully shaped and arranged, but he is as blunt as ever. We paused by the pond, and the sweat started to flow together above his eyes. I remembered his glaziness how it had become too much. How is it you don't get hit by a car? I used to ask him. He used to pretend he couldn't hear. I think about how it used to feel talking to his remote head. I look away from him. I look at the ducks. Before the whole thing, this re-meeting, sinks towards an enormous deflation, there is his untidy proclamation, and afterwards, I'm glad it's now and now we live in different cities.