8.

She: surprised at the new thickness of his shoulders
and the familiar delicate slope of his father's nose
his new grad student glasses,
but those same favorite blue sneakers
He: shocked all over again by her beauty,
the frame of her new haircut
her sparkling earrings
the new smile lines curving away from her eyes
tying together
a portrait that is almost unbearable

How they had shrunk in each other's mind
to the last clear image
a halo of sun
a pair of knit eyebrows
a pair of feet dangling off a dock

he sits beside her
he says he thinks clearer when they talk
"You might think I sound crazy,
but you should hear me when I'm not talking to you."

he asks if she thinks of him
and where he fits into the rhythm of her life
he says he thinks of her
wishes for her to bring some chaos into his logicked world
he says he just wants time with her
fifty days on a desert island

she reminds him that they're both in love with other people
that they live 3000 miles apart
that the rhythm of their lives
has never carried them together for very long
before tugging them apart again

she says the time is not right
and the time has never been right
and maybe the time will never be right.

he doesn't know
that she has just had to catch her heart like a balloon
by the string and tug it
hand over hand
back to earth