IN THE RESTAURANT

by: Claire Zu Bard

H, dark and fascinating young man,

(Sitting opposite me at the restaurant-table),

There are spots of color on your thin cheek-bones

And your eyes are deep and smoldering....

Your feverish fingers hold hopefully your glass of milk

And you eat your soft-boiled eggs with a relish.

 

But I see a black shadow at your elbow,

Oh, dark young man,

And I know the meaning of your too-red cheeks,

And of that reckless light in your too-bright eyes....

I know why you drink that tasteless warm white drink,

And why you suffer soft-boiled eggs at noon....

 

But I know, too,

Oh, dark and fascinating young man,

(Sitting opposite me at the restaurant-table),

That you are a hundred times more hopeful,

More passionate, more alive than I--

 

I,--rugged, and bursting my stays with vulgar health,--

I,--eating my juicy steaks and cherry pie--

I,--already nearing the age of thirty-nine

And without a lover....

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