After the Fact


A coin in my pocket
& you at my side.
Nine months since you left,
the commitments we made
as a couple have outlasted our love:
Bridesmaid & best man,
Witnesses to another marriage.


Photographs in the park,
all the flowers reminding me of funerals.
& you turn to me
& ask, as in past days,
do I have money for you to buy a drink?


These are not times past,
but days of ghosts & long shadows.
I feel that coin in my pocket,
feel my old self begin to say yes.
But time has claimed its toll
& clutching this coin
I turn to you & say
I am sorry.