"Everything that happens where we live happens in us. Everything that ceases in what we see ceases in us.
Everything that has been, if we saw it when it was, was taken from us when it went away.
The office boy left today."
~Fernando Pessoa

It’s the office boy -
And, God… the baby.


They existed, undeniably so,
In the days that came and went
[and he loved them]
Until they, themselves,
Were gone.

Somehow in their going…
They became more-real

And the sudden, pained awareness
Of their being, then, not-there
Was impossible to deny
And undeniably unbearable
(because he loved them).


It’s the office boy –
And God, the baby,


And you

And me

And… that.








Author's Note: Lest there be any misunderstanding, I should note, I suppose, that neither "the office boy" nor "the baby" were mine (not in any real sense, I mean). But.... I think he'd understand why they are here.