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Sometimes when I wake up
I wonder if it will be, as usual,
The bed I’ve used for the last decade
Or will it be another place
Another life and family and time

I know the calendars say “2002”
But sometimes it’s 10 or 20 years
Or more beyond that
Or dates behind us are here again
Or perhaps there is no time at all.

I am outside
I watch people in the store
Or walking across the lobby to the elevator

I am no longer there
My emotions are missing
Because I am a witness
A hunter and gatherer of facts

The times and the places and the lives
Are a continuum or a tunnel
Maybe they’re a river tumbling into falls
Cascades slipping away into Niagara
As I saw when I was 10.

I am outside
I am watching you and others
And see your passion and your hatreds
I see your reunions and your feuds
Your celebrations and your mourning.

Time and life have left me
But I float back.
The alarm is a shuddering clang
I roll over and open my eyes
And I am still in this life and in this bed
That is in this place.