chance encounter; a poem

I saw a girl today and knew right away that she was the sort to write poems about.

She was beautiful, yes, but that was the least important thing,

There was something in her step, her detachment from the world, lost in these big bulky headphones that transported her completely, unmistakably elsewhere.

There was something in the long black coat she wore, a men’s coat maybe, dug up from a thrift store rack,

Her work boots, dark jeans, fleeting blue eyes beneath dark eyelashes.

As I looked at her, a rainbow blossomed over the dawn dark sky;

Even the universe was making it obvious.

Something in me said go go go, reach her if just for a moment.

We took the same tram, got off at the same stop.

We walked to the same train station, me trailing behind her, always searching for the glint of dawn sun in her long hair.

I even got on the same train carriage as her.

I imagined striking up a conversation - what are you listening to? Or I like your tote bag - both feeling the sort of falling flying sensation that takes hold when fate makes itself known.

But she kept walking, hauling open the metal door between carriages and sitting down alone, far from me.

I thought for a moment that she might get off at the same stop with me, that we might be headed in the same direction,

But it was my turn to walk away while she remained seated.

I grieved, then, for what could have been.

It’s not often you meet an angel.