Necessity at Rådmansgatan

We all rush
down the narrow stone stairway
to the trains or back up again

but still people find more ways
to avoid each other

tugging the neck to the left
or planting the chin square
on the collarbone

as if the whites of a stranger's eyes
might graze us.

It's easy for many
to become one
if we need to, someone said.

I'll be the ears
and you be the eyes, love.

If at last we detach from all
we remember, let's hope
what each of us can salvage

will not be the same.

Copyright © 2005 Hildred Crill All rights reserved
from The Greensboro Review
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission