It is long since we talked, since we walked
the Hudson like we used to. Long since

the rabbits in the bushes watched us darkly
as we hopped together, you dropping,

like a reflection, down the sidewalk glare.
I walked another river today, through

a latticework cast by trees, a cool breeze.
I didn’t notice you. Water frothed

on rocks I could not see. Limbs creaked
in the wind, and I said something

to my companion about the fangs of the earth.
I stepped, snapped a branch, and smiled

in some way darkly familiar. I wonder now
if you were there, smiling along,

a snap that breaks out in the woods and is gone.