Unconscious

Somehow, my brain retained a spotless 
recollection of that hug-and-sway
aboard a summer dinner cruise 
on the tamed Saint Lawrence River. 
I had been due to start twelfth grade, 
while she could not have been much more
than a year or two older or younger. 
When the last slow song had begun — 
“Nothing Broken But My Heart” 
by Celine Dion — we had spotted 
each other from across the dance floor 
on the open-air deck of the ship.