An Instant

A glance across an elevator door.

He stared at her.
She stared back.

He was inside the elevator.
She was outside of it.

It was just an instant.

How can just an instant reshape you?
Change whatever,
ever mattered?

Leave you breathless?
Reawaken you to all that is vital?

Reveal possibility?
Longing that you never knew existed?

How can one flash,
One, One-two,
Entrap you in a moment long ago?

An elevator from which you'll
never exit?

A poem by Pemba Umoja