“A choice, made now, today, projects itself backwards in time and changes past actions.”     

– Czeslaw Milosz, quoting an unknown disciple of Karl Jaspers

I made excuses, rejecting
what I knew of mortality, either
yours or mine, and suddenly
the black leaves grew green
where they had fallen and you,
rapturous with rings on your
fingers, gestured to me
from the courtyard where we
thought we had both died.

Michael Cooney has published poetry and short fiction in Bitter Oleander, Badlands, Sundial, Second Chance Lit and other journals. His novella “The Witch Girl & The Wobbly” appears in the 2021 Running Wild Anthology.