Midway Through a Now Familiar Passage

'Sed fugit interea, fugit inreparable tempus.' - Virgil

Midway through a now familiar passage
In a poem read carelessly twice before,
You find yourself reading the words
Aloud for a moment, quietly startled
That such beauty could come from your own lips.
The book tilts away in your hands, and the words
Go away, just as the trees through the window
Tilt slightly in the flecked grey wind, then return,
As the pages return, the words, the gradual
Awe. Far away, a dull bell rings then is gone.
A siren sounds, soaring. Somewhere an odd thud
Carpets the brittle silence. Footsteps fall.
All this silence. All this distance. Just who
Is all this distance for if not for us?
The words are spoken again; the distance is drawn to
You, finally, entirely, and all
The world rains delicately for a moment.

- Ernest Hilbert