[when our words ruled the world]

[I dreamed that I met you in Auckland, in a light-blind city street. I was scared you wouldn't speak to me, but when you saw me, all those lost years fell away.

It was as if nothing had happened: I was still the prime collaborator and confidante. As if I'd only been gone for a moment. As if, in conversation, I'd simply paused for breath.

You, with your big career and champions, still treated my mind like a beautiful thing, a mystery, a delight—like you had when the sun had shone on the two of us, and our words ruled the world.

And when I woke up I realised I was back at square one: at the start of the race for distance, at the impossible start of leaving you behind]