Late night intimacy

Ushering into a new decade

now sinking gladly in oblivion

Buzz of blue neon lights from television sets in semi-dark apartments

More coffee after 9.00 pm in open to midnight coffee shops

Unconventional music playing on the speakers

supposedly a context for my life

There is sometimes the kindness of hostesses

and there is coffee

Always black

always a savior

and drank in the warmth of strangers.

The small steps,

gestures,

taken to initiate conversations

and sometimes relationships

are almost never taken.

Those who approach my table

with the possibility of lightening my life

with the speed and frequency of a Hailey's comet

always return without a name

or a phone number

cross streets, semi-drunken

to soon forget even the possibility of something remote.

The night sky has a glad face or so it seems

When you stare at it meaningfully

Was it ever supposed to mean anything?

I distract myself

by staring at pages in a  Jonathan Franzen novel

into the unsuspecting eyes of pretty strangers

into glasses of cold beer and unimaginably hot chicken wings

I distract myself by constantly working

and planning the order of things for the ensuing days.

But those who could truly distract me always return

home alone.