One day Mz N meets a woman
slightly horsefaced
hair a tangle

There’s a woman
walks through me
sits at the table

Winter. Late January
afternoon. Night falls fast.
You think I should know this

Ferns here ferns there
I dream of my newest friends                         
who soon subside   

That man over there
looking sidelong
as you sidelong

Something about what matters
   Breathes in the twilight blushing
         Everything here on the piers.

If you were with me, I’d be thinking
of a drive out to the white lake
even though it’s raining.

The way of free things unmatched she moved
expert of love but love more subtly tuned
than a watcher would expect from naive distance

Stretched to fit the Mall, this pool upholds
the sky, the purple monuments, these two
just married posing at its rim. I climb

And seven centuries later, you are born while somewhere,
another flood threatens.