The first and last time I met Egje

At the host's somewhat awkward
offer of sparkling wine

on the terrace overlooking the valley

as the mid-afternoon sun drizzled through
the lime tree and Californian poppies
shyly fringed the farmhouse wall

before the first bite of olive cake
before her husband turned the elm
before the tajines lined up on her beam

with no thought for her caved-in roof
no notion of the rogue cancer cell
but after she said that water finds a way

around a rock

not over it

she returned, What a ridiculous idea.

(First published in One Sentence Poems, 2 April 2018.)