highlights and interstices

We think of lifetimes as mostly the exceptional
and sorrows. Marriage we remember as the children,
vacations, and emergencies. The uncommon parts.
But the best is often when nothing is happening.
The way a mother picks up the child almost without
noticing and carried her across Waller Street
while talking with the other women. What if she could keep
all of that? Our lives happen between the memorable. I have lost
two thousand habitual breakfasts with Michiko. What i miss most about
her is that commonplace I can no longer remember.

Jack Gilbert