Beset

[Originally published on Popcorn Popping, 2006]

I have entertained my share
of righteous fantasies.
Pious diets calculated
to burn off more of the world
than one takes in.
Goals documented
in the pages of now obsolete
organizational technology.
So many schemes always
to remember him
to anxiously engage
to say "nevertheless ..."
Yet again that moment has
found me: I am out somewhere,
maybe buying groceries.
From a distance I see my goal,
an old friend.
My heart groans in recognition.
I promised to call and never did
—beset—
I approach my friend once more.