An unexpected encounter
A first time chance meeting
Putting a face to the name
As his daughter did likewise with me
Known to each other through others
Rarely in proximity
Living our separate lives
In different states
Surprised by the likeness
When I saw her I saw him
The same facial structure and blue eyes
The same manner of speaking
And he was present then for me
Sitting in the same chair
Animated and engaged in conversation
As she told her encounter stories
Describing the uncanny feeling
Being visited by a robin at her window
Day after day after his death
As if he were communicating with her
In her grief welcoming any contact
Providing a measure of comfort
Real or imagined it does not matter
The way that dreams really happen to you
So too with the barred owl the night before
That flew over to perch and stare back
At the humans watching transfixed
Standing in front of the cabin where he slept
She considers the possibility it was him
The way that birds represent meanings
Open to interpretation if you are open
The way the dead stay with us in our thoughts
And while she spoke of these encounters
As if to entertain the existence of reincarnation
I listened transfixed by the actual embodiment
She encounters every day in the mirror
