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