you'd take another sip
from your wouldhavebeen coffee
or iced mocha latte
whichever you'd prefer, i've got
a giftcard with money left over from
two christmases ago.
somehow i'd never had the heart
to spend it all, without cause or consort to spend it for. and i
didn't want to look like the
depressed and lonely person who sits without
companion save for her latest book of poetry
in some pathetic chain cafe where the ambiance
is, just is, and nothing less or more.
you'd ask me How I was and i would say
that I'm fine, How are you; but
the thing is, neither of us would be inclined to knowing
the other's emotions, agitation, misery, disconsolate
lonesomeness. it's nothing but the preordained
dialogue that we would have to say, this
conversation spoken over and repeated so
like a dollar bill gone through the wash a time
too many, since you forgot it was there
in your pocket
the entire time, or that
it was ever worth anything.
it certainly wouldn't look it, crumpled and
soft on the edges in a world where
anything worth anything is
crisp and hard and new. you'd say
Don't bother I've got this, and pay
with a credit card you got in the mail.
we'd go our separate ways as
many do and don't. and once, someday, i'd return
to the pathetic chain cafe and spend
my giftcard on someone
worth paying for.

05/27/2007

Posted on 05/28/2007
Copyright © 2024 Emily Tong