standing still

i bought a packet of meiji melty kisses the other day at watsons and was just walking aimlessly along the shelves, looking here and there and at nothing at all, thoughts wandering about the atrocious designs of christmas cards that are being sold when out of the corner of my eye i spy someone looking at me.
i turn and look at the person who seems to do a double take at me and find myself staring at some face from the past, more than 5 years ago right in front of me suddenly. some things come rushing to mind - burnt edges of letters, lined paper pasted on pages torn quickly from magazines.
lots of things.

***

and today, gnarled fingers working nimbly on dough, a beige mixture well whisked perhaps, spread over a hot pan, a pan so hot that the dough immediately hardens and takes the shape of the pan. resembling skin, aptly called "skin" with a twang of sacarsm perhaps, probably.
that in that hot home, time seems to stand still, as the man-made fountain continues to swish water downfall in a pull or a tug, to rejoin the large puddle where fishes are still thrashing about in their reverie, alive.
of time ticking by in the grandfather clock, of echoes of muted sounds enamating from the clock, as if mocking the notion that time would ever stand still, as though it could.

and then on the way back i spied a melty kiss hidden in the car, i tore open the wrapper and nothing was inside but liqid chocolate. i threw it upon the grass, an ode to ants, and i thought of that day when you wanted to give me some chocolate and the day we drove to macs.