The Port of Entry

I was checking out the usual news stories on the web, when I came across this one story about how dangerous the border is now days. There are 2 major drug cartels currently fighting it out for control the the US drug trade. According to the article, at least 600 people have been killed along the border this year...so far. Scary stuff indeed. Then I noticed that several pictures were included in the story. I checked them out and one of them was a foto of the port where my flame is assigned to.

It was a distant shot, across 4 lanes of traffic as vehicles were entering the US. On the far side of the entry way...coming out of a building...was a person who looked remarkedly like the girl I had loved so many years ago. Was it her...it was hard to tell...but it seemed to be. The uniform looked right...the stature looked right...the hair looked right. Yet the image was so small...even under intense magnification...I could not tell. The pixelization was just too much. If it was indeed her...at least I know she is well and still working ardently away. I was wishing I could get a closer, better shot. It was not to be.

I have not seen her in person for so long now...that her image is like a vapid dream state...clouded in the misty fog of time. Yet it did my soul well to see that one small photograph.
To remember what it had been like so long ago. To envision her crossing those lanes...whether or not it really was her...made little difference. It was the thoughts and memories that counted the most. Some spring of life leaked back into my body...a purpose that allowed me to continue on. Rekindled again was the flame of love...barren unto my world for more years than I care to remember.

If it was her...I am glad I saw her...if only caught in a tiny image. If not, I still am glad...for the purpose of life carries on. My sadness and sorrow replaced for a brief second with a joy and anticipation I had not felt for over a decade.

And the lonliness of time marches on...relentless...heartless...cold...omnipotent.

Sigh.....................