3 SINGLE PEOPLE AT THE COFFEE BEAN AND TEA LEAF

She sits in the corner with a tattered book that

looks like a large-print bible, but betrays some

hidden verse. I would like to sit down with you

and mention that I like Donne, Houseman,

and burn when I read Frost. But then you

would think I am gay, quasi-metro-sexual,

or just a smile-sending entity who hides his picture

on online dating sites. I wonder if you are waiting.

He sits next to the empty glass, with people passing

and not noticing and talking. Your ears are tuned

to somewhere else, and your eyes are on the papers.

I would gain solace in you, because I don't feel so

alone when I sit across at another four-seater table

(with my bag taking up the adjacent chair)

pretending not to notice.

And then there is the empty seat opposite me,

left behind by that couple I was speaking to.

Selling my visions of what their life

would eventually be like. And I read the papers

left beneath a half-chewed cheesecake,

and lipstick-stained napkins,

and two forks.