Somewhere Between Two Steps

It was somewhere between

  the time that his left foot pushed off the lower step

  and his right foot landed on the next step

that she came around the corner

  and she caught sight of him.

It was raining           

  and they were both running.

He was running up the stairs toward shelter

  and she was running after him.

They had been chasing each other

  for the last five months—

he walking her home,

she buying him a favorite book,

she holding the look an extra moment,

he holding an embrace a little too long,

  and both of them afraid of all this.

She was still going to marry another man in March

  and when she saw this man in mid-air between two stairs

she suddenly saw herself as she had been

these five months: running for shelter.

And she saw herself as she was now:

  somewhere between two steps.

And before he returned to earth,

his right foot hitting the concrete,

  she had stopped running to watch him leave her.

When he was out of sight, she turned and ran for home.