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I wrote this today in my favorite coffee shop while reading Cavafy’s Collected Poems. The italicized lines in the poem are from Cavafy’s poem “Before Time Altered Them.”
After a poem by C.P. Cavafy
They were full of sadness at their parting.
A fleeting kiss, meant to play the role
of so much unexplored country.
Tin-voiced airline announcements listing
destinations — a word meaning, originally,
“to stand.”
So he did, looking out the terminal window,
watching her walk away.
That wasn’t what they themselves wanted.
It was circumstances.
So easy to place the blame on fate.
Throw the stick in the stream,
watch it float toward the sea.
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