***stardust

so I walk amidst the many-tongued
my ear jumping to any slight-recognised sound
        was that a scrap of Japanese?
                or Vietnamese or something else entirely
so many faces, flashes of colour, glances of eyes
a child's laughter a teen's silence
        .....
glancing over my eyes fall on a boy
(maybe a couple of years younger than me)
and it's the briefest of moments but---
        my eyes light a little
        though I can't explain exactly why
                cos he's cute
                cos he looked a little like Bono would have at that age
                ...cos of something instantly familiar in his eyes
A half-meeting - not even that, not a single word was exchanged between us
        lifted my gaze a bit as he walked past
he and his companions (a boy a bit younger, an older man) sat at the table beside us
I looked over occasionally, trying not to be obvious, not trying to accomplish anything just wanting to look at the boy, perhaps learn something of him...
They had accents, I think British (though they talked too little for me to not be completely sure it wasn't Australian)
He had a camera slung across his shoulder, as did I
He walked past a number of times...
One of the many sparrows about scrounging for food hopped across the ground near his feet - it had caught the corner of my eye and I smiled a little at it - then glanced up and saw him doing the same, smiling at the sight of this little sparrow so close by...
He moved to a different table
        still adjacent ours, still in sight, but I could only see his back
        and neck and short brown half-curls (not full or tight curls,
        wavier larger ones rather like my own)
It sprinkled now and again, we got up to go elsewhere...and as we walked I saw him and the two he was with walking just ahead of us.
They began to run to try to beat the rain...
And he turned back and looked at me.
        and maybe he was just making sure of the person following
        behind him
        but our eyes (and it felt something more even still) met and I
        smiled...

And in two weeks' time I may not be able to recal his face but for now.....
he's a stronger presence in my mind than all the reputed wonder of Niagara Falls,
this boy I never even spoke to

And it's just as with the blond-haired boy I sat across the sidewalk from in Milan three summers ago...our eyes met but that was all, a look, a smile, a memory that both warms you and tugs at something a little like regret...

*Ananda Daydream * 8:54 PM * *

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