Nolan,

                     The apparition of these faces in the crowd ...)



riding the bullet train
the view passes by so fast
it is either a blur they say

or —like night lightning
strobes the raindrops
to a stop in midair

in that soundless moment—
maybe from the train you can glimpse
waiting there

one of those famous petals stopped still
in midair holding its wave to you
in place.        write us

and tell us if
this is so.

Excerpted from To See the Earth Before the End of the World, © 2010 by Wesleyan University Press. Used with permission of the publisher.