Poetry 365

“You should be in love,” he tells me


We look at each other
always
with guilt
and turn away.


(What revelations I suffer at your hands).


Every time I cross the street I glance sidelong into traffic hoping you are in all of the cars.

And for days
after people say
hello
Behind me on the sidewalk
And my heart stops.


I brighten
the way only a man
who loved me
would recognize

I turn around to look
But it’s
Only, always,
Only
Always
A man into his cellphone.

“Hello!” he says,
So sincerely that it hurts.