City Passage

I went looking for you today.

I know you expect me to say that I did not find you, since you are not here, since you went away to that other place and will never, ever come back to this one.

But I did find you. You were everywhere.

I never quite caught a glimpse of your face, but that doesn't matter- I will never not know you, when you are near. I know how you dress, how you move- I know the echo of your voice, and the pause that precedes it. I know your scent, your shape... and I saw you a dozen dozen times today. Your reflection kept pace with mine through the shop windows, and your shadow flitted from one bronze statue to the next. The memory of you held hands with the anticipation of you, and they danced round and round under that silvery gateway to the sky, weaving in and out of the dozens of strangers staring up so intently at nothing at all.

(We are nothing without you.)

And sometimes you came quite close to me, but you did not hover- you brushed by so quickly that my hair moved, so quickly that I suddenly understood the name of our city: it is the wind of a thousand rushing ghosts, followed close by the sighs of those of us you've left behind.

(Passage)