on searches improbable

I HAVE ransacked the encyclopedias
And slid my fingers among topics and titles
Looking for you.

And the answer comes slow.
There seems to be no answer.

I shall ask the next banana peddler the who and the why of it.

Or—the iceman with his iron tongs gripping a clear cube in summer sunlight—maybe he will know.

- Carl Sanburg, Smoke and Steel, III. Broken-Face Gargoyles, 8. Old-fashioned Requited Love