always

“He was going to make it”

He always did

It was almost

like night to sunset

or thunder to lightning

in the way he just always came

 

In the way he made headway

when it seemed as though

there was none

when it seemed as though

close calls would be his

shortfall

• but they never were

 

I guess when someone does something

enough times expectations morph

to their own form of certainty

I guess when someone does something

enough times the margins of implausibility

dissipate into spaces temporarily unfilled

 

I guess when someone does something

enough times you think that

they’ll always fill those spaces

 

• Until someone else does

 

And you realize

that they’ll never be there again

that this was their goodbye

That he was never going to make it

no matter how much you wanted him to

No matter how much I wanted him to

 

© Hudson Biko