=Visitation=

(for M)

In the back of a Starbuck’s

I park

on a Sunday night

after dropping you off at your mother’s.

           

            --it’s one of those nights

when you take stock

of your life

in a parking lot of empty spaces

as if you’ve finally arrived

at your destination

after everyone else

has long gone…

Tonight, on the ride back,

I asked you

if you considered yourself

a happy person

and for the first time

in your 11-year-old life you paused

before answering

as if it were a trick question.

It is.

A thousand men

just like me

with the exact same story to tell

might have vanished

from this parking lot.

I wonder if you’ll come looking for me someday.

If you did,  I wonder what you'd find.

After a while,

I start the car

and go home.

Funny, calling anything that ever again.