Eyes locking across the party’s din
but we did not really connect.
She was really speaking with her boss.
Her worlds were all around her,
family, sisters, brothers, in-laws and her work.
She was caught within her many circumstances.
Circumstances within which she functions somewhat differently
from the ones, within which she functions with me,
or with her family,
or with her boss, Gail.
Gail had earlier been talking to another woman from the office.
I had chided them to leave work there.
It was a traditional family Christmas party
and Santa wouldn’t have that. We should be festive.
“But…” she said. “But sometimes you just can’t…”
In another corner two sisters were whispering,
eyes darting from world to world.
Worlds were whirling all around and about.
Worlds I did not perceive,
but worlds as vast and real and weighty
as any moons orbiting any world, anywhere.
Her eyes still within the locked instant,
seeing without seeing,
closed.
I had lost her.
And not just her gaze in that second.
Yet I couldn’t see that either.
Not the breaking off.
Not the many tugs
of all the gravitational forces
invisibly griping and wrenching her
from the many directions.
Not the worlds colliding.