The Road to Amphigouri

				for RC at 65
 

				When did you arrive, 
			he asked, by which he meant,
			can you remember 
				what you wore?
					
				Not a stitch, she said
			between the lines, and seven 
			hundred eighty months 
				ago--more or less,
				
				knowing, even as she 
			spoke, he might go to valiant 
			lengths to make the number 
				more precise--
			
				ferret out Hokkaido's 
			average winter rainfall, say, or count 
			the notes in all the mad- 
				cow music
				
				in the world, but all 
			he did, it seems, was ask her if 
			she'd like to dance, 
				forgetting that
				
				they were already
			dancing, so busy was he counting 
			all the clouds in sight 
				that summer day.      


					--- Julian Crowell
				
				My thanks to Passager for publishing 
				"The Road to Amphigouri" in their
				Issue 38, 2004.