rendezvous

every time we run
into each other, it turns
out you're beautiful

hi, pretty lady,
you say, and I'm too awestruck
to interrogate

for irony, since
you were beautiful straddling
my upside-down bike

that day, smudged by grease
as you built the blue-gleam frame
I could ride and ride

or the stormy night
we came in rain-wet by chance
to the same hotel

but especially
the day we met and I did
not see you at all