FIDELITY

After supper I returned to

my reading book    I had

reached page one hundred

and forty    two hundred and twenty

more to go I had been thinking that

evening    as we spoke

early at dinner with a couple of young

people    of the dense improbable

life of that book in which I had become so comfortable

the characters were now my troubled companions

I knew them    understood I could

reenter these lives without loss

so firm my habitation    I scanned the shelves

some books so dear to me    I had missed them

leaned forward to take the work into

my hands    I took a couple of deep breaths

thought about the acceleration of days

yes    I could reenter them but …

No    how could I desert that other whole life

those others in their city basements

Abandonment    How could I have allowed myself

even thought of a half hour’s distraction

when life had pages    or decades to go

so much was about to happen to people

I already know and nearly loved