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Path: utzoo!utcs!lsuc!pesnta!hplabs!tektronix!reed!suki
From: suki@reed.UUCP (Monica Nosek)
Newsgroups: net.poems
Subject: In the coffee shop
Message-ID: <958@reed.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 18-Feb-85 22:09:03 EST
Article-I.D.: reed.958
Posted: Mon Feb 18 22:09:03 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 22-Feb-85 01:05:58 EST
Reply-To: suki@reed.UUCP (Monica Nosek)
Organization: Reed College, Portland, Oregon
Lines: 54


     	He Finds Himself Too Busy For Her

He is free and easy today;
his arms swing long and loose at his side
until he sees the lens of liquid
brimming in my eye.
Then he pulls me close to him
but hardly touching
and cuts his rangy stride
to match my step.

He is wishing that I wouldn't cry.
He makes it all the harder not to.

This time he pushes cheese potato chips
across the table at me;
it is not a peace offering,
it is severance pay.
I push them back and say that
I'm not hungry.

I lie.

We share a drink--
two straws, 
no ice.
I experiment with physics
and hold my finger over the end of my straw
then let the soda trickle
down my throat.

Once his fingers stroked my neck;
it felt the same.

I do not like to sit here in
the campus cofffee shop
with streaks on my cheeks;
my pain is private.
 
The editors arrive at four
and want to talk to him about
tomorrow's issue, so he puts aside
his application to be next year's
model dorm dad, and talks about
his efforts to keep the world safe
for democracy.

Small wonder that his time runs short
as his patience with me.
-- 
--------------------------------------------------------------
			Monica Nosek
			reed!suki