The Art of Tetman Callis

our first date
wee-hours dining at an all-night place after the bar we met in had closed

she took my hand and turned it palm-up to read
the great love of your life will come to you in middle age

i assumed she meant this would be a happy event

i also assumed she meant it would not be her
she was twenty-five
i was twenty

we spent nearly every one of the following six hundred or so nights together
then one more some time after that

(Copyright 2023 by Tetman Callis.)