Coincidence

She believes in coincidence
The way she used to believe in God.

God once lined her world
Along the Bible's edge:
Flat as the Medieval
Earth. She walked
Forward, clear-eyed, until
She walked too far, and
Slipped off the edge –
Now, she floats, an
Astronaut untethered
A prophet abandoned,
Fumbling for purpose
But finding only
Coincidences:
Pinpricks of meaning,
Amoral as starlight,
Scattered as stars.

She follows coincidences
The way she used to follow God.

They lead her blind along
Meandering destinies
Shaped like the men
She meets in bars:
Their dim-lit smiles
Meaningless, until they
Meet again, by chance
On the train or in a store,
Their bodies magnetized
By coincidence -
She is pulled through
Space, to darkened rooms,
Their flesh lit white
By windowed starlight,
She touches with
Transmuted reverence.

She loves them
The way she used to love God.

But they are not God,
These coincidence-men.
They pale day by day,
Translucent by week's end;
She reaches out to them
But her hand passes
Through; they leave
Dust on her fingers, like
Moths brushed mid-flight:
Discarded destinies
Or destinies that discard
Her. She floats on, and
She remembers God,
As a planet she once knew:
Certain as gravity
Ageless as earth.

She misses Him
The way she never misses them.