Before the Break

Before the Break

By Jonathan Bennett

It will happen, often without any warning

Such as when filling bowls in the morning

To please hungry, fuzzy, feline faces.

Questions, answers fill the quiet spaces.

This time it’s someone from Paris Review

Who has come to conduct an interview.

We’re talking about, of course, this moment—

One of joy but also disappointment—

Which is the last before the change, the Break.

Did it rest upon a choice that I’ll make

Or a chance statement in conversation?

I’m hanging on in anticipation,

But the life I love, I live intervenes

For a moment enough to break the scene,

And I miss how and when the Break arrives.

So, I pour my cup, boot up before five,

Before work, to try and write a few words

And discover the ending I’ve not heard.