Remember those conversations

That lodge themselves inside your mind

With cold precision not expected at the time?

They’re with the lady on the train,

The one with pearls and purple coat

Who passed you peanuts in a packet,

Never asked for, but neither was advice.

And somehow ten years on you cannot shake

That thing she said, just slipped between

Some niceties that float away upon the breeze.

But ten years on it’s still right there,

Like a sentence whispered from the gods.