Chance Meeting

By Susan Browne Susan Browne

I know him, that man

walking- toward me up the crowded street

of the city, I have lived with him

seven years now, I know his fast stride,

his windy wheatfield hair, his hands thrust

deep in his jacket pockets, hands

that have known my body, touched

its softest part, caused its quick shudders

and slow releasings, I have seen his face

above my face, his mouth smiling, moaning

his eyes closed and opened, I have studied

his eyes, the brown turning gold at the centers,

I have silently watched him lying beside me

in the early morning, I know his loneliness,

like mine, human and sad,

but different, too, his private pain

and pleasure I can never enter even as he comes

closer, past trees and cars, trash and flowers,

steam rising from the manhole covers,

gutters running with rain, he lifts his head,

he sees me, we are strangers again,

and a rending music of desire and loss—

I don’t know him—courses through me,

and we kiss and say, It’s good to see you,

as if we haven’t seen each other in years

when it was just a few hours ago,

and we are shy, then, not knowing

what to say next.

Source: Buddha’s Dogs (Four Way Books, 2004)

Biography

Native Californian Susan Browne is the author of two collections of poetry, Buddha's Dogs (2004), winner of the Four Way Books Prize, and Zephyr (2010). Her work has been included in anthologies such as Ordinary Genius (2009) and 180 More: Extraordinary Poems for Everyday (2005). Awarded prizes from the Chester H. Jones Foundation, the Los Angeles Poetry Poetry Festival, and the National Writers Union, Browne lives, writes, and . . .

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