Coincidence

Winter in Pompeii. A time of 
sweeping, cleaning up, restoration
and digging further in the ash.
Students have been deployed,
sometimes a picture is taken.

Six years pass, and in your tent
at three in the morning you show me pictures:
Look, I was a student then, 
we dug up a villa in Pompeii, 
It was cold as hell, I stole this coin, here!

A couple of years later I leaf through
a catalog about Pompeii. With a shock
I recognize the picture, your thick sweater, your knit cap,
It was cold as hell you said.
Slowly I slide the cold coin over my warm chest.