On A Chance Meeting of Someone I Didn't Like, 2018

I realized, with a start, how quickly I'd dismissed

The thing that's another man's reason to exist.

Why react with antipathy, bitter contempt?

It would be so much better to make an attempt

To find out how a thing that means nothing to me

Could amount to another's whole reason to be.

Though our goals are entirely different, I do

Have passions I'd sacrifice too much for, too.

Hi, Pt. 2

It's fair to forget; after all, it was fleeting.

This isn't the first, but our second time meeting.

I'm not taking offense that you didn't recall,

For chance and a lesson's no insult at all.

The first time we talked didn't make an impression?

Try a new conversation, a different direction.

Those who come up short once rarely get another shake.

On the rare times it happens, it's a chance one must take.

Why They Don't Let Poets Amend the Theory of Relativity, Part 2

There's some in inaction, more in anticipation,

But youth is the strongest known form of time dilation.

I recall when a minute could seem to drag on.

Now, I might miss a month and not care where it's gone.

While I once would quail looking from summer to fall,

Now I look at a year like it's nothing at all.

Though I can't look ahead and be sure when life ends,

If you asked, “is that long?” I would answer, “depends.”