Footprints in the grass
I’m in a familiar garden
Outside a familiar house
Music from the living room
Dylan plays “Days of ’49”
Curtains move in a slow draft
Cigarette in ashtray, smoke twirling
Someone just left the room
Footprints in the grass
Newspaper on the table
Dated June 30, 1970
Suddenly I can’t breathe
I smell her perfume
It’s the home of my first love
and we had just met
It was fifty-six years ago
I don’t even know if she’s alive
The sun is friendly
but the silence is roaring
not a soul around
Time has stopped
but the clock keeps running
not a soul around
The vacant streets make me shiver
They are as lost in time as me
Empty windows watch me
From empty houses
I call out loud
My voice finds no one
Not even a whisper
The silence feels like a threat
The sun is friendly
but the silence is roaring
not a soul around
Time has stopped
but the clock keeps running
not a soul around
Maybe I came too late
Maybe I came too soon
Maybe this day went on
Without me in the room
Maybe I slipped between
What was and what is gone
A moment left behind
That just keeps going on
Suddenly I saw
a woman’s face in a window
Her eyes wide, her mouth open
Almost real
I approached the window
And realized the face was
painted on the glass
Nothing behind it
The sun is friendly
but the silence is roaring
not a soul around
There’s no escape
from this yesterday
where I was never meant to be