Don't Stop

Late Arrival:

The world was already here
Serene in its otherness.
It only took you to arrive
On the late afternoon train
To where no one awaited you. 

A town no one ever remembered
Because of its drabness
Where you lost your way
Searching for a place to stay
In a maze of identical streets. 

It was then that you heard,
As if for the very first time,
The sound of your own footsteps
Under a church clock
Which had stopped just as you did 

Between two empty streets
Aglow in the afternoon sunlight,
Two modest stretches of infinity
For you to wonder at
Before resuming your walk. 

Charles Simic.