Time Is Magic

If time is magic then
when
I see you again
It would be the same.

But time is like chess:
to avoid submitting you
can:
A. Put something in the way
B. Advance and conquer
C. String it out for a stalemate

There were things in the way
when I saw you again:
I was pregnant, I was married,
I had moved to the country.
Tongue-tied, I only told you
the latter. Stilted, we tripped
up, and two days later I
flew home from my trip to
the pouring rain
where I parked alone
at the end of a lane
in a carpark of stone.
Looking out at the mist
I wrote of that time
when things felt like
magic but we were just
pawns in someone
else's game.