Wiser Than I

how could i have missed you? you sat on the same bench in the same clothes in the same park for eternity. but nowhere in the million years that i ran my errands: walk my dog walk my kids to school walk myself to work did i consciously perceive you. you were hidden behind frost-glazen branches of a tree i could have sworn did not exist. your faded yellow paint-peel covered jacket was justified by a bench bare in patches. the first day you weren't there, my eye caught the empty bench and i realized something was wrong. and i wracked the crevices of my brain for an answer and only then did i remember you: the stillness of your contemplating face in need of creme and a razor. i blushingly realized that all this time i had been intruding on your property, walking in your park. i'm sorry... i did not mean to disturb. but you never returned since that fateful day, and i wonder if the park the soil Nature absorbed you, grasped you to its bosom. and i wish that i had seen you while you were still there. trust me, i would have walked over to say hello and asked you what you were thinking remembering understanding.