“I stop somewhere waiting for you.”
She's hosting today at Chicken Spaghetti and I have this to share--looking forward to all the stoppings, all the somewheres!
I stop somewhere waiting for you
It’s unclear where I've stopped
or who you’ll be, but I’m ready to settle
here, in a pool of shade or a beam of sun,
with you.
It’s hard to know how it will happen.
You may emerge from a dressing room,
turning before the mirror in a new striped sweater,
dragging your eyes across mine, deliberate.
Or I may rush from my park bench to chase
you with the glove you just dropped.
You may stand just before me in line
to buy popcorn for the movie, the movie
we’re both seeing alone.
Or I may step into a repurposed phone booth
and dial 0, and you’ll be the stranger who picks up
in some faraway city.
I stop here, somewhere, waiting for you,
waiting to fall in love with someone
I’ve never met.
draft ©HM 2026
This speaker's open heart is the best! I love all these potential meetings. Really fun, Heidi.
ReplyDeleteHeidi, the narrator's voice leads me to unknown places to find love on your journey. Each scenario is beautifully rendered. There is a sense of wonder, joy, and anticipation. Thank you for sharing this tender poem.
ReplyDeleteSo many possible ways to meet! What a hopeful poem in this day and age of sad online dating. I will share this one with my looking-for-love son. xo
ReplyDeleteMine is a kind of love story, but more questioning, not looking. I love the way you've broadened to a search, Heidi, showing such want for the one true love. It has such a strong, yearning voice!
ReplyDeleteLove this cinematic and romantic poem!!!!
ReplyDeleteSo brimming with possibility and anticipation!
ReplyDeleteI love the line, "the movie we're both seeing alone." This poem pairs perfectly with Cathy S. colors of kindness...all the waiting for someone, chasing with a dropped glove, positive possibility feels so kind.
ReplyDeleteLinda M.
DeleteAh, lovely, Heidi. "In a pool of shade or a beam of sun" either place is a great place for falling in love. Your poem speaks of hope in love.
ReplyDeleteSo many great images, Heidi, on being alone and longing for the one you'll meet. You thread optimism through the poem, making it so hopeful. And the repurposed phone booth... great emotional stanza. I saw recently somewhere, where someone made a phone booth in the woods that people who are grieving can go and spend some time talking to their loved one who has passed. It broke my heart and made me smile at the same time.
ReplyDeleteThis came from this public phone installation in San Francisco and Abilene TX: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-01-22/california-texas-phone-booths-experiment-political-divide ... Fascinating!
Delete"in a pool of shade or beam of sun / with you" aaaah! Love this!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful, Heidi - love and hope and possibility. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteso wistful. great images. I'm there with you.
ReplyDeleteThe delightful swirl of speculation is embedded in your poem. The possibility of discovery and the chance of romance is so apparent. Love it, Heidi.
ReplyDeleteMaybe because I’ve been steeped in jazz this weekend, but this poem is like an old jazz lyrical love story.
ReplyDeleteIt used to be imagined romance, now it's just the imagining of all the alternative paths my life could have taken when, like in this poem, a different choice was made.
ReplyDeleteI love all the possibilities here and the gentle openness. It has the wonderful, warm, nostalgic feeling of a sepia photograph or an old movie.
ReplyDelete