she turned the table on him

                                              literally

tho perhaps not that she knew or cared

it wasnt for him to say

itd been months since they talked

then she was sitting at the very same table him standing

she asked him why he didnt sit with her he answered he preferred being a moving target

A what

he didnt say

she appeared smarted than that

rather hed let it occur to her

reveal depth 
or not

            or maybe when he wasnt around

they talked about her dog

an her other dog

they could fit into a handbag petite bitches like herself which she spent loads of money on as she blatantly admitted her absence boyfriend spent on her

he was curious if her boyfriend wasnt in absentia what he might have said of her remark

he knew what hed say

 

but he didnt know the man an after all it was their relationship no one should say  they ought to tend to their own affairs keep their mouths shut(egads  utterly inhuman of him) 

ordinarily her remark would have him running for the hills(as his born and bred Illinoian parents would say  --  he didnt listen to them before  --  why would he start now) but there was something that attracted him beyond her attractiveness

 

reminding him of Wallace Stevens The Snow Man

For the listener, who listens in the snow,/And nothing himself, beholds/Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is

One must have a mind of winter

this casual play he entered an witnessed didnt exist fully

an if not fully

 

then what was missing

he was attracted to what wasnt there

he was certainly attracted to her  

                                   

despite the affectations that detracted from her

he imagined himself to a side his hands held out opposite each other like a scale as one tipped up the other down

the cruelty of sensate pros an cons which ought to inform but that are often ignored forcing one to relent not weigh what should be what is significant

she was attracted to him

but they were attractive people

magnetic poles that attracted metal filings wherever they went  they were glommed onto adhered held to some standard or fix of perverse entertainment or emotional equilibrium or maintenance

an if failing  falling shy

then their fault

not the filings

this evening she sat at the table they met at smoking a cigar

she ignored him

she fondled the cigar fingered it

she licked its shaft turned its tip in her mouth teethed it rolled it between her red lips again an again before lighting it

an lit she held it to rested it on her lower lip

absently 

as if she were involved in the conversation with her girlfriends

 

who were continually pulling her back into it because she missed her cues her marks

she wasnt being the flame to their moths

he ignored her too

they were at odds among other people an to acknowledge the other would be blatant  obvious

an they were anything but emotionally obvious

they refused to be metal filings for the other

Aw  secretly they would have thought 

                                                               Isnt that nice

0145,  Monday,  7  12. 15

1330,  Monday,  7  12. 15