A timeline of sorts.

20 months from start to finish
43 from first sighting to goodbye
In some respects
barely time to take a breath
but enough for those songs to always remind me

11-1/2 years together
at the outer ends of 34
unanticipated slumber in between
barely a trace remains
but for songs gone back to what they used to mean

Two encounters four years apart
an embrace too deep to escape
No longer part of my life
she stays with me
in a song in words she’d never understand

Two months emerged from an ending
into an alcohol haze and after-hours
jazz and melancholy
Hours of music in cars
rent and shopping and all I do…

10 days in July and December two years later
Three years over the course of seven
The hole in the universe
around which the rest of existence swirls
but no songs beyond those I’ve claimed for my own

Some days I listen to the music
and pretend it’s summer again
when the music still means something

Sometimes it’s your face I see
but mostly I remember the weather as I sing along

(21/22 July 2017)