Featured Poet Austin Alexis Page 1
Encountering a Friend
Merely a few weeks before you died
I spotted you
heading for subway steps,
the staircase just ten feet ahead.
Your frightened expression foretold
the shortness of your life.
Your stooped posture prefigured
your death’s unfairness.
We waved at each other,
not wanting to stop and talk,
not choosing to come face to face
with what we were already facing,
as we hurriedly passed by one another.