Sometimes, Paris

Do you remember Paris
Sometimes
Oh, and the night
Heavy rain but stars in our hearts
Midnight far past, we went on reading
Warmth of bookshelves and maybe -
a flicker of light
Finally walking the empty black streets
Dragging the cello cases through mud
My hair was a mess, but so was yours
The cold and laughter and dirt on our clothes
They wrote a silent poem into the night
And I never felt more alive.

Oh, we were young then
And kings of time
I have seen Paris since
But I remember
Sometimes
I only truly saw it that night.

The next morning
We had aged fifty years
And we went on living
Talking but never speaking
Like our silence had done before
Your heart was full of other things
I know it well, and yet
It did not matter that night
Do you not remember Paris
How we will never see it again
Sometimes
The best poetry ceases
Before you can write it down.