Did you see?

Did anyone see?

It seemed

she was there

an instant ago…

Across the street…

A woman.

Clad in dark wool coat

and dress

and beret…

It seemed

she stood, just there –

on the sidewalk…

where the driveway’s apron

spills into the street…

It seemed

she paused…

For just a moment…

To look at me.

Our eyes met.

It seemed

she hesitated –

black shoes

a stark and shiny contrast

to pale-stockinged legs…

It seemed

she waited…

feet planted

on the sidewalk’s network of

seams and

cracks and

broken cement…

And,

suddenly,

it seemed

she vanished…

Sucked,

swallowed,

slurped down

into the earth

through spider-webbed cracks,

her black-gloved right hand –

fingers splayed wide –

the last of her

to claw

to flash

to pass

into that’s seam’s

impossible hollow.

In that one impossible

instant.

Did you not see?

Did no one else

see?

It seems

not…

 

— C.Birde, 3/13