Tasty Stranger

        stranger at a bus stop

on a plain wooden bench
on the sandy concrete
in a tweedy earth-tone jacket
all slub and dun with
chocolate leather shoes
half pale wan and waiting
her legs her face hair hands
eyes teeth ears
sketch a simple spectrum
from white to light brown

the colors in a half-
chewed caramel crème

the colors are flavors
that blend and merge
melt and stick to
the intimate parts
of the mouth

through the glass I stare 
and write she expects
something someone now 
now gulp of red wine
I wash away the
memory flavors
I lick a drop of red
from my lower lip
she does the same
from her pink lips
which jump into
my imagination
as the only part of her 
outside the spectrum

her pinked mouth and tongue
signal the beginning 
and end of intimacy

I look back and she’s gone
that fast  
 

1998