Novel Lives

I’m walking
the dog
when I spot
him,
up ahead on
the path,

The Man
With Much
To Say
About Not Much
of Anything,

and now
I’ll need to
put an extra
twenty minutes
on the Walk Clock.

Then I remember
that I have begun
to believe that
he and
I and
you and
they
have all
lived many
lives,
enough to fill
dozens of those
novels I’m
pining to
read,
especially the
one waiting
for me
whenever I
figure out how
to slip past
The Man
With Much
To Say.

But now
he’s become
The Man of
Many Lives,

and that’s
a whole
different
Story.

(Photo by Caspar Rae; Unsplash)