Poetry
a modern day David in a cafe
Jennifer M. Pierson
heat unwinds my mood as I curl my leg around me
and lean into you with that ancient desire
your words fall from a far off somewhere
onto the shadowed lids of my eyes
the twist of grey hair at the base of your neck
prepares me for an inevitable age
are you that wise?
I come here often
you bring your absence to bury the passion of my reason
in some foreign cafe of my mind
I am longing for Angkor Wat or Everest
the city of old Jerusalem at my back
you think my attention is yours
to marry with your magnet eyes
your twirl of fingers across the edges
of that sweet brown cake
touches the sandy back of my throat
I know its sugar—I see you wanting
the other women gab and gather—you do not care
I mark my moments like Bathsheba waiting
tomorrow I will knit the moon a cover of beetles and walk out into heat
bearing an amulet of your eyes