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[While filling their orders She touches their receptive hands, Making the two friends take notice On the many secrets of our human condition: Whereas the coffee energizes their bodies, Her smile brings warmth To the hearts Of all those Within her reach.] |
Lines That Never Meet
By Adolph Caso
Five in the morning
Eating crullers dipped in coffee
At the local Dunkin’ Donuts
Two elders
Who should be in bed
Next to the warm bodies
Of their wives
Postulate
The behavior of parallel lines:
Whether they meet,
At one point in time and space
If vertical,
Or do not meet
If horizontal;
Or whether
As objects falling from two separate points
Ever meet
And not whether
The same objects fall
At the Galilean speed
Regardless
Of each object’s weight or size.
In our man-made world,
Parallel lines are bolstered
By mathematical algorithms
That keep them on their paths
Beyond eternity--
Never meeting--
Regardless of nature’s laws
Which deny such sets,
Because each line
Is generated from
Or terminates into
One eternal,
And pre-ordained single point
Within the immensity
Of space and time
In an incomprehensible universe
Whose secrets are beyond our grasp.
Chatting
Rather than brooding
Over the fate of those lines--
Ever meeting at one point,
The two near-octogenarians
Are distracted
By compatriots approaching the counter,
Their faces beaming
As they receive their latte
From their maiden waitress.
While filling their orders
She touches their receptive hands,
Making the two friends take notice
On the many secrets of our human condition:
Whereas the coffee energizes their bodies,
Her smile brings warmth
To the hearts
Of all those
Within her reach.
Now,
The two friends are set to go home
With an expectation
Of returning there,
Where all lines meet,
Fatefully and eternally
At the same unitary point
Somewhere and specifically,
Within this universe of ours.
Standing by the bedside,
He looks at his wife still sleeping.
On placing his hand on her shoulder
She reacts to his touch.
Her eyes groggy but closed,
She answers: “Yes, Darling?”
After one kiss,
He falls asleep again,
Oblivious
To lines that never meet. 
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