//creative//
Fall 2018
A Moment Just Passed
Noah Avigan
While I sat on a park bench watching
The runners pass through my line of vision,
Leaves blowing
First in circles on the ground
And then up from the subway grate
To the trees and down again,
All sublimed in the blurriness of my gaze
On a park bench--
An older man approached me and offered me a Time magazine.
He, too, was watching. He had been.
He had been the man occupying the
Bench on the left side of my panorama.
But only now I knew he was watching too.
“Here, take it.”
“No thanks, I don’t read Time.”
“It’s a really good edition. I mean it, take it.”
“I’m not sure what I’d do with it.”
“Throw it away if you’d like. But I’m done with it,
At least now you’ll have the opportunity to take a look.”
With a smile, he left and
As it passed into my hand a leaf dropped
From inside of the binding and rested on my foot.
Only when I had seen him leave the park
And turned back towards the runners and leaves
Did I feel the immediacy of the moment just passed.
The runners pass through my line of vision,
Leaves blowing
First in circles on the ground
And then up from the subway grate
To the trees and down again,
All sublimed in the blurriness of my gaze
On a park bench--
An older man approached me and offered me a Time magazine.
He, too, was watching. He had been.
He had been the man occupying the
Bench on the left side of my panorama.
But only now I knew he was watching too.
“Here, take it.”
“No thanks, I don’t read Time.”
“It’s a really good edition. I mean it, take it.”
“I’m not sure what I’d do with it.”
“Throw it away if you’d like. But I’m done with it,
At least now you’ll have the opportunity to take a look.”
With a smile, he left and
As it passed into my hand a leaf dropped
From inside of the binding and rested on my foot.
Only when I had seen him leave the park
And turned back towards the runners and leaves
Did I feel the immediacy of the moment just passed.
//NOAH AVIGAN is a sophomore in Columbia College and Deputy Creative Editor of The Current. He can be reached at [email protected].