She waited for you, I tell you
though it was really me who waited
throughout this Easter blizzard
that will give this night a permanence in your mind
just as the weight of that wet snow
will forever bend the rhododendron
that held it like a god.
Go sit beside her, I suggest
because you are unsure,
like at the foot of any mountain path
that rises like a bookcase before you
it's easier if you've done this before
counted every step to the top
a stranger's story becomes your own.
We never discuss what's really happening
what we all do not want to want
but it's my eyes you'll keep like something stolen
that last look before I go
as if I had revealed to you how at the summit
the moment the mist clears
like your own breath before you, it's there,
it's always been there, the glorious old hotel
in ruins.
