Thursday after work

I stopped at my dry cleaner's with some shirts  

Glancing in the shopping bag

I'd been emptying out the shirts onto the counter from

To see if there were any more shirts in the bag,

I saw that no shirts remained to be removed

But that there was a grocery receipt there

That I'd neglected to take out‑‑‑

Something unusual for me  

Out of curiosity,

To see when I'd forgotten to remove the receipt from the bag,

I looked for the date that should be on the slip of paper‑‑‑

Rather than falling within the recent past

The date lay in May

While it was now October;

What's more, it was May of two years back  

Arriving home from the dry cleaner's

I was informed that my friend from the far north had phoned  

I returned the call  

Immediately after I finished on the phone

I walked into an experience chronicled in Something Very Pleasant

The next afternoon, just before work let out for the weekend,

A friend and I were chatting  

I took out some clippings I keep in my wallet,

And which I hadn't been through in months,

And placed them on my friend's desk  

One clipping lay separate from the others  

It had been folded twice

And presented only a small section of its surface to me  

Clearly standing out in that area facing me was a date‑‑‑

The clipping was from TV Guide

And contained the entry for a film I'd seen in the movies at age five‑‑‑

The date visible was that of the appearance of that movie on tv,

May 19th, two years ago  

At that point I resolved to check the exact date in May

On the grocery receipt from two years ago  

But it was now Friday at the end of the work day

And I had to pick you up downstairs for our first date‑‑‑

One I was especially looking forward to  

At some point during that magic evening

It turned out your birthday is May 21st  

The date on the grocery receipt also turned out to be May 21st