The Woman In the Produce Aisle

there i was with a 100 pound headache wild eyed and in a hurry filling my cart with impulse purchases as usual trying to get through a shopping chore when a beautiful woman smiled at me i did not know what to do or say maybe nod and smile back do the regular thing no big deal yet it had been long since an unknown female had smiled so intimately like that at first I thought she must be looking at someone else over my shoulder a close companion or lover then she came close spoke directly saying only that i reminded her of a dead friend as she spoke i felt an affinity or believed i did her eyes were mine far seeing yet veiled by a sense of loss seems she just wanted to say hi because saying hi to a stranger who looks just like someone she missed is like a postcard sent to a ghost while still in the flesh or a note posted between intersecting worlds where other bodies meet i understood some people have an impossible beloved that they follow religiously and compare to all others it is dumb insulting to our other loves to think that unknown lives can be bound between one reality and another only to suddenly impact in this way over boke choy and arugula but when she placed her hand over mine on the handle of the cart at that moment we understood that neither of us we’re telling the whole truth and only time would keep us apart but not forever