Postcard From Somewhere

A postcard came this morning / With your handwriting on the back / No message, just a photograph / Of somewhere near the sea / I turned it over twice / As if another sentence might appear / Something explaining why you sent it / After all these years / I don't remember your address / I don't remember giving mine / I remember one afternoon / And your coat against the wall / We talked about leaving town / As if we both had somewhere else / Then you disappeared before the rain / And I never asked you why / Somewhere near the sea / Somewhere I have never been / I searched the place online / Just to see what it looks like now / There are photographs of hotels / And boats beside the harbor / A restaurant with blue windows / A road that follows the coast / I tried to picture you there / But couldn't make you stay / Maybe you were passing through / Maybe you thought of me / Maybe the card was meant for someone else / And found its way to me / For a moment I wanted an answer / I wanted the missing years / A reason for the postcard / A reason you remembered / Then I realized / I liked not knowing / I put the postcard on the shelf / Beside a photograph of friends / People I haven't spoken to / Since we all became adults / It doesn't belong there / But I haven't moved it yet / Sometimes I look at that blue water / And imagine you walking past / Older than the person I remember / But carrying the same coat / Maybe that's enough / The postcard has no answer / The postcard doesn't need one / Somewhere near the sea / You thought of me / And that is all I have / And that is enough