I miss Amelia Earhart,

the outline of her twin-engine Lockheed Electra

through the depths of the Pacific Ocean

flickering across TV screens across the world

today;

a world much different from the one she left

on 2nd July 1937

I miss her

in much the same way

I miss the Hungarian opera singer Maria Ivogün,

whom I, of course, never met either,

but whose 78 rpm recordings from the 1920s and -30s

ignited a love for her that didn't acknowledge the years

between her and me,

to the extent that I often whispered,

playing her 78s, transferred to compact discs,

the illogical words: ”I love you then”,

from a distant future she never saw,

putting time in a funny place indeed

In Amelia's case,

I miss her smile, reaching me out of all these b/w photos;

I miss her tomboy appearance,

her devotion to discovery, her reckless courage,

- a lack

very well expressed in Björk's song ”I Miss You”

from her album POST, containing lines like:
”I miss you, but I haven't met you yet”

- and I ensure you,

love can flow way backwards in time,

and I can say, truly, to Amelia and to Maria,

that ”I love you then”!