I remember seeing you

Standing in sunlit window light at the front of the bookstore

Your hand on the small of her back

Your head dipped down as she flips through the book in her hands

You were both smiling and

I remember seeing you

As I peered over from my own perusing from behind the bookshelf

A moment

Suspended like the soft-swaying spiderwebs from the corners above

Floating gently like the tufts of cat dander

kicked up from the old layered rugs between the shelves and creaking floor boards

A moment in front of me

Tender and delicate

She traces a book spine with vanilla crème fingertips

dipped in cherry red

Your thumb glides a circle in the low bend of her back

I remember seeing you

Smiling

She flips her hair and it tumbles down her shoulders in ringlets

Your hand slides up to brush one to the side

as she turns and beams at me

I remember seeing you and

I remember being seen

Beyond the musk of book bound mites and sprites

The aged sun-warmed oaken shelving

towering above the three of us to hold this moment in a sun spot

Where you grinned and brushed your knuckles across my upper arm

Slipped your fingertips off the hem of her skirt

Guided us both back into the canals of carpet and cat hair once more

Fiction, biography, the classics, new releases

My hand replaced yours as she walked past and

I remember seeing you

Walking with a straight back

Glancing over your narrow shoulder to see us following

We are following