Things Happen

 
What if I hadn’t stopped to watch the butterflies

that day and kept on walking, my eyes staring

at the ground, my mind drifting far away?

What if you weren’t walking there that day

to see what I was looking at, not there

standing next to me, two strangers sharing

that moment on a sunny day smiling at one another,

watching butterflies fluttering among the flowers?

What if you walked past me, your mind on other

things, the moments in our lives, the hours

taking us to other places instead of being there?

But things happen in ways we can’t explain,

and there we were, not certain how that day

among the butterflies brought us to this place,

or why what happens haphazardly came.

But here we are, smiling at each other’s face,

knowing laughter, knowing grief, knowing pain,

knowing there’s no place to hide, no curtain

to pull down or change our knowing

that no matter what we do, nothing is certain.

And so, not knowing what tomorrow brings,

glad to have this time to look into your eyes,

glad you came into my life like the butterflies

among the flowers and now my happy heart sings

out about the magic way things happen.