You Were A Minute Late Waiting Dilemma Poem by Terence George Craddock

it was a winter grey overcast day
I was still new to the train stations city
a foreigner fresh come no turkish
among traffic jams swirling black crowds
Istanbul a labyrinth in old city near hotel
slippery muddy streets past rain run spread
I alone journey to make an appointment
in Türkiye at Bakırköy train station...

no friends would recognize in Turkish clothes
perhaps a minute early a minute late time
in city traffic allows 15 to 30 minutes I did
not then know then late was often on time early
perhaps she had arrived left gone on ahead
what to do tick tick panic what to do...

she must be waiting up ahead at next station
I panic button decide perhaps we mistimed
a miscommunication easy with book stilted
time lapse word by word looking each up
in our too slow English Turkish dictionaries
to slow slow hard to make sense of words
stitching a sentence together in slow agony
no electronic translations no cellphones then...

decisions decisions decisions decisions
should I wait or go up the line to next station
to next station or direct to final destination
to next station I go wait wait 10 15 minutes
to final destination I go wait wait 10 15 minutes
up and down the distant line I go in agony...

a few hours have passed time waiting traveling by train
a few hours have passed time in total mental anguish
a few hours have passed passed passed time with no
possible communication finally desolate I will leave
only one thing I can think to do I will travel to her house
totally exhausted I arrive drained exhausted I arrive
she is exhausted thought I had had an accident or dead
her younger sister was correct you had a miscommunication...

in a city of millions
at train stations
you waited here
he waited there
your younger sister was sure
we would find get other...