Passing

We passed 

as we have done 

countless times before

In every aspect 

of this life 

we have passed 

each other 

The latest 

was at two-thirty 

in the morning 

meeting in a doorway— 

you were coming back 

into the room 

as I was leaving 

We stood there 

for just a few seconds 

and a lifetime of passing 

showed up 

There was nothing substantial 

about the passing

There was no fanfare 

no fireworks 

no angelic chorus 

Yet what was seen 

can never be unseen 

I saw your fragility 

I have long known 

how fragile life is 

how tenuous 

But in that passing 

I saw something 

I had somehow 

refused to see —

not today 

not tomorrow 

but somewhere 

beyond that doorway 

And for those few seconds 

abstract philosophy 

became reality 

© Ron Simpson Jr. 

September 13, 2026