New Narrative (or, why things don’t happen)

When
there is always
an elsewhere, an otherwise
to the placed moment, the event—when

Poem sits in a restaurant
named Papa George’s (Winnipeg
or Jasper?) as three vacationers
pose for a fourth who
takes a picture but looks
like she thinks the photo
will not turn out or when

events recede into the larger
integration which, when named
become an event—when

the picture is taken, it
is not one but four emotions
which are taken (but where?)
by Poem—who

recedes, in time