who we were
on my way out of a 7-11 last night
a woman on her way in
suddenly pulled me aside and
said, "i know you!
who are you? what's your name?"
she looked familiar to me, too.
i said, "i'm Jeremiah Chariot
and i think i know you from
somewhere, too."
we tried to figure out how we knew
each other by asking each other
what high school we went to.
we asked if we knew each other's
friends or if we had mutual
acquaintances or, possibly, the same
doctor, dentist, psychiatrist,
insurance salesman or pot dealer.
no, no, no, no, no, no
and she doesn't smoke pot.
we then tried places we've visited
recently, followed by the cities we've
previously lived, then we went through
all the jobs each of us has held in
the past few years. we also
went over the stores and bars
each other frequents often.
i even asked her if she, perhaps, was
once a hooker in milwaukee circa 1992.
again, no.
after 15 minutes of trying to
figure out who we were
we both gave up and parted,
more familiar to each other than
to most of our friends but
still complete strangers.
-published in Sunny Outside