2 days after

2 DAYS AFTER

to Patricia Hughes

Before noon 2 days after,
I see you in your window;
you wave me up to your floor,
to meet you in 2nd-floor hallway.

You explain what's happened:
“People have told me not to see you,”
but you can't name which (not Gale.)

I reply: "If I have to not see you, then I won't. Btw, we'll
no longer be seeing Dereck's 2 cats here after today;
He comes back tomorrow.”
I turn & leave; you call me back for a brief hug.
I leave again; you disappear into your apt.

Later, 3-ish, we suddenly meet outside at ground-level;
you suggest we sit on the wet green bench betw. our bldgs.

You see the mailman coming & suggest we sit instead
on the sofa in your bldg.'s lobby
where you pull out of your soft French carpet-bag
a paperback copy of FOUR SUFI CLASSICS.

Bemused, I reveal:

“I read Sufi poetry as an undergraduate.”
Your reading it attracts me more to you.

You hand me a small tangerine; 
I hand it back;

you hand it back to me again
saying: “I have too many.”

I peel it with my tiny pen-knife
& eat all of its tart orange pulp.

(01 MAR 14, noonish PDT, V V 4-4D, Santa Clara CA)v5