Serendipity

Serendipity!
I never understood the word
until you enacted it

I didn't search for you
Because I didn't know you existed
and Google's "I'm feeling lucky"
doesn't work unless you feel lucky
Which, unfortunately, I never felt
until I found you

Paths cross
They have to,
The world is a small place

But who knows
We may be going in opposite directions

Or you may race ahead
While I trudge off road.

Or we may keep walking on parallel roads
Never far away
Never close enough
To hold hands

I know it so well that
I can't summon the ignorant bliss
Of my first crush
The realities have sobered me

Still
When I see bogies of that freight train
Entwined in their encumbered journey
I feel that it is good,
that we are not bound by the same fate

but we are free
to choose
to accompany each other
in a journey that becomes more important than the destination

Or to wish good luck to each other
in hot pursuit of our own mirages
and say goodbye

Or to hold hands
and choose a third direction.
Rarities of life are rarely found on the beaten tracks.

Jan 5, 2007