On a walk with Zoe in the fall
casting toward the river and the Plant,
She -- pulling, snuffling, loping, searching, gay --
I, strung out on the twilight of the day.
Round the bend, a woman held a leash;
looking west, her coat an engine-re.
Too eager for the winter chill, I felt,
with glorious, golden autumn dusk ahead.
Distracted for a moment by the dog,
I suddenly looked up again to find
the woman gone, and standing in her place
a fire hydrant on a piping base.
I laughed that I could make such a mistake!
But truly, the resemblance in the dusk
uncanny, and I swear I saw her face
expectant to the west, as for a dog.
In the first moment I lost you
A jarring recognition, seeing true
The presence I thought waited there and breathed
Was just a hole, covering a need.
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