Hello in a Coffee Shop

 

 Some days when the afternoon shadows arch like cats

 To stretch from their long naps,

  A nervous boy meets a pretty girl

 

  And he shuffles across café tiles,

  Past old men reading the Times,

  Going around chatting women on lounging lunch breaks,

  He notices her coffee mug is empty

 

  And asks politely to order her a refill

  She glances up and thinks he works there,

  At Kava House, on a street that runs toward town,

  And declines,

 

  But when he asks if he can sit beside her,

  She remembers that she left the house

  Wearing jeans and a t-shirt,

  With no make-up

 

  He, of course, only noticed her hovering smile

  As she studied out of a textbook,

  How her hair was pulled up flatteringly,

  That she jiggled her tennis shoe while she read,

  The caffeine working

 

  And so he said hello