Fractures in Time

I prefer the idea of fractured time
And infinite universes
To that of eternal return—the idea
That every possible fork of every moment
Is somewhere taken

That somewhere Kathy, who smiled at me that weekend
At the football game in such a way that made me
Wonder if she liked me,
Didn’t get on that motorcycle
After that party

And a universe in which
The EMTs arrived in time
To stop the bleeding

And that somewhere there’s a universe
In which I did not slide past her
With goofy shy and false insouciance
But smiled again and spoke

And one in which I walked beside her to the bleachers

And one where we spent that evening someplace

Where no one had a motorcycle,

And more than you can count

Where I never felt a reason

To write this poem.