buxom red girl in the bookstore sweet swollen red impossibly tight I should draw my gaze away. but it's sooooo like being wakened from only 3 hours of sleep could I please just linger a moment longer? gazing at her? she looks upwards wonderfully from oversized pages full of Emily Dickinson "A big book with few words." It's a lame line. "It has pictures," she corrects me. how to stand there like I have some business other than trying to look like I'm not trying to look like I'm looking at her. buxom beauty in red she offers helpfully: "If you like Bukowski, you would love Henry Miller" "Didn't he write 'The Crucible'?" "That was *Arthur* Miller (!)" trying to sound erudite I splat on the ground. at least she politely suppresses the laugh. "He was a man's man. He wrote like Bukowski, but he got more action." "Girls *like* that?!" not words I expect from that pretty mouth. "Could I have your phone number?" "No." she smiles confidently. she has said that before. ". . . But you're sweet." I hate being sweet. I hate feeling helpless as her tight redness wrapped around her walks away from me. never to call me. never to return to me. maybe if I could write like Bukowski. © Copyright 2004 Daniel S. Wilkerson