Tree and Girl

If I had had my camera out

If I had had more time

If I had been on my own

And not running to catch the train to Zurich

In the station of Milan.

I would have taken at least two photos.

One of a scraggly unleafed tree

Waiting for someone

As it sat on a wheelbarrow. 

Next to it a small blonde girl

Also waiting for someone.

I thought they belonged to each other.

But later she had disappeared 

As the tree on its wheelbarrow went by

Pushed by a man 

without the girl.

The tree

And the girl.

Then almost running along the platform

Trying to keep up with Cynthia

And the man who had been sitting across from us

Writing writing writing  in his journal

And who was evidently from Zurich

As he told us where to get a taxi 

When we got there.

So almost running down the platform

I was overtaken by  a student

Seen only from the back 

But must have been a student

Pulling a suitcase

Or might have been a backpack

With a bright turquoise colored metal frame

Glowing in the grey of the 8’o’clock station.

Two photos I would have taken

Had I had my camera out

Had I had the time

Had I been alone

But which now exist only

On the screen of my mind.