Two Men - poem by Alberto Ríos

Two men approach, who had been friends
Through the horse days of their childhood,

In the hay and the barns exuding summer-sigh, 
Eating mulberries and seeds from the devil’s claw 

And the mountain onions, too, thriving in the rolling hills.
Years gone, they had long lost track of each other.

It happens to most. But now, these two men approach, 
Having come to the same town, the same street,

The same door, the same handle,
Both at the same moment, by accident, by circumstance.

When they reach, and in doing so, when they touch,
However incidentally, each will look up.

There will be excuse-mes and I’m-sorrys at first,
But what happens next is the beginning of a different story.

What happens next has not yet happened.
We can guess, and hope to be right.