Was it an echo reverberating back through Time?
What did I hear
in the silence between heartbeats?
Why did I cry
so spontaneously
at such an inappropriate moment?
How did I know
what I could never, ever
have realized?
I asked you to walk me down the aisle
twenty-two and a half years before
you asked me to walk down the same aisle
for you.
Of course, I was crying—
Long before I knew what you would suffer,
Long before your diagnosis,
Long before your death.
I cry now too.
What did we know then?
You holding back your tears
while mine spilled freely?
Could you have imagined the echo?
No, not then, not ever.
I knew that I felt alone
while surrounded by those who loved me most.
What do I know?
What can I know?
What will I know
when I admit all that can be known?
Did I hear an echo?
Did time warp around itself?
Why do I wish I could go back
with the understanding I now embody?
Poem by Jill Kimberly Hartwell Geoffrion