I wanted to circumnavigate your pulse
  but I caught you on an off-beat

I tried to stumble across your hospitable ecstasy
  but first I needed to stop trying

I heard people referring to you as a serendipity magnet
  and I wondered if we had like or unlike charges

the seashore updrafts heard of “we”
  but I thought they murmured merely “oui”

waterfalls and cairns knew of our future history
  but they were keeping it to themselves

dawn mist refuses to invade your personal space
  but you miss breathing the vapor

you used to answer to Sarah
  but Dearborn spills from your mouth these days

the jets fly silently
  when they pass over your head

stigmata erupted on you
  the last time an “adulteress” was stoned to death in Nigeria

kayaks don’t roll with you in them
  even drunken jetskiers’ wakes dissipate when they near you 

your name is regularly whistled on the aquarium’s Orca FM station
  but they haven’t decoded the syllables yet

you intuitively know how many pine needles there are on a tree
  but how  how  do we stop the quiet places from eluding us

Copyright 2002, Stephen Buckley
08.29.02, 1030-1100am