Strangers in TimeA Poem by David Lewis PagetI’ll
ever remember the day she left In
a storm, I was so unkind, I’d
hurled the dinner right over her head At
the wall, and it blew her mind! ‘That’s
it!’ she muttered, and grabbed her bag Went
sailing out of the door, With
never a backward glance at me Or
our lives, forever more! I
sat for a week, just waited, thinking Soon
she’ll be coming home, Sat
in the dark and hated, loved, Then
thought I’d better atone, So
I took to the streets, her mother’s house But
of her, there wasn’t a trace, I
tried her sister and brother’s homes And
they slammed the door in my face. Louise
had walked right out of my life And
she wouldn’t be coming back, My
world collapsed in a fit of tears But
I had to accept the fact, I
walked unthinking into the road, Was
hit by the local bus, I
vaguely remember the ambulance bell And
waking up in a truss. There
was something odd in that hospital, I
couldn’t quite pin it down, The
ward was the long, old-fashioned sort In
a seedy part of town, I
noticed the nurse’s uniforms Were
odd, like they used to wear Back
in the fifties, as a kid I’d
had tonsillitis there. There
was more than plenty of time to think And
I went back through my life, Went
back to every decision I’d made Right
up to losing my wife, If
I’d just done this, or just said that I’d
have taken a different tack, So
many ways I’d mishandled things With
no chance of going back. And
there, behind each second of time Was
a choice that we’d have to make, Two
paths had always been open to us What
path did the other path take? Could
there be a parallel universe Where
the other half of me, Had
made those different decisions, Was
alive, but happy and free? It
took three months for my wounds to heal Then
I found myself in the street, It
wasn’t the town I remembered, though, It
had changed, perceptively, And
I was feeling much younger So
much fitter than before, A
glimpse of my face in a mirror, caught And
shocked me to the core! I
went to the university And
there I saw Louise, Just
as I’d seen her years before And
she waved and smiled at me, Or
I thought she did, but she passed me by Went
up to another man, Kissed
him there in the quad, and then Walked
off with him, hand in hand. I
was back in a parallel universe Before
she’d become my wife, And
now I remembered, Andy Cole Had
caused me a lot of strife, We’d
both gone after the same Louise In
the end, she’d chosen me, But
not before he had done with her, Walked
off, and set her free. I
followed them at a distance to The
place where they shared a flat, I
noticed she wore a wedding ring And
I thought that that was that! I’d
come too late in this scheme of things That
had taken another line, I
walked by her, but she knew me not, We
were simply strangers in time. Then
suddenly I was back at home And
closing the old front door, I
could smell Louise’s cooking, it Was
a dish I’d come to abhor, I
took my place at the table and She
handed me the plate, I
said, ‘It smells delicious, dear!’ I’m
the master of my fate! David
Lewis Paget © 2012 David Lewis PagetFeatured Review
Reviews
|
StatsAuthor
Related WritingPeople who liked this story also liked..
|
![[send message]](https://www.writerscafe.org/images/mail.png){kind=small}
![[befriend]](https://www.writerscafe.org/images/friend.png){kind=small}
first
prev
Share This
Email
Facebook
Twitter
Read Request
My Library
Flag Writing
