20.04.04 - 5:52 p.m.

thoughts were sloshing around my head and words
like jawbreakers crudded up my mouth, the harder ones
to say, the most important to the sentence
but while i read her, the way she leaned forward
and averted her eyes then slumped back, meeting
my gaze dead on, i tried less deftly than usual
to trip her up and she matched me play for play - the
reading aloud, paris and
anne of green gables, her quaint little bobbypin
and privateschool upbringing. oh i was ready to
hate her, to field accusatory looks from my husband
all night and end the encounter haughtily
having emerged victorious, cleverer with better hair but truly
she reminded me of an ex-girlfriend i followed on busrides
to places i had no intention of ending up at
and the only test she failed was her absentminded reply
to my query about the cuteness of french girls.