I often wonder what I would have said if I could have gone back to that moment. Ripped the veil between past and present to tell her exactly how right she was about me. I would start with I’m sorry. So very, very sorry. Because the truth is, there were many things I should have done and many sentences I should have said.

may gravity pull you back to the surface
from the space that resides
within these hours prior to five
fermenting eternally in these everlasting days

It strikes me as funny, so I laugh once, an odd sort of grating, gravelly chuckle. Everyone else in the canteen is frozen—mouths halfway open, holding their breath, wide eyes staring. Clocks tick unnervingly; the sharp sound of seconds snapping away.