A Big Moment

I had fallen asleep
on a dead lawn
beneath a flowering
Magnolia tree

The blonde
broke through
the red door to my right

I think lightning struck
ten miles away
in the San Gabriel
Mountains

“My father died two weeks ago,” she said.

I had never met her
before that moment

I did not respond

She told me
of the flight back to
Pennsylvania
her numb mother
the funeral
and of coming back
to a soulless job
and the cement
of Los Angeles

And then
she was gone

10 years later
she still wakes me
from my afternoon
nap
only now
she stays

And I
respond

Photo | Rebecca Malone | Targoviste, Romania