A Moment at Heinhold's

we are sitting in the sun
enjoying heffewiessen or wine.
they wander up: 4 poets in colorful poet attire.
hand me a flyer
"a poetry reading - around the corner in a half hour".
dispersing thru the tables, sharing their words and flyer "come to the reading".

a tall dude, clean dude, prosperous dude, eyes the flyer, eyes the poets.

eyes moving and clinging to a poet girl.
slow recognition, slowly rising to his feet, mouthing words.
he moves towards her, eyes never leaving her face.
dude's recognition gets closer and louder.

poet girl sees him, begins her own recognition.
the hug, the greeting, the mutual disbelief that they are both standing there, far away and several years from home: dude and poet girl.
they quickly fill the gaps of the last few years. since when? highschool?

poet girl: graduating from berkeley, moving to dublin, studying poetry.

dude: living in holland, have a warehouse in alameda, imports from china, "business stuff".

but here poet boy sits, trying to hide his all-consuming interest in the event unfolding before him.
his eyes dart, meet mine, panic in them.
back to tall dude, confident dude's face.

poet girl, quickly collecting wits, "this is my husband".
eyes move to poet boy, the husband. the greeting is brief, fleeting, unsatisfactory for poet boy.
dude continues. "how are your parents?" implies such intamacy.
the circle is not opened to poet boy.

glancing up frequently, occasionally interjecting, finially turns back to the other poets.
poet boy, a little too loudly.... "kafka", "metamorphosis", "you must....here, listen to this" as he recites, still a little too loud and with emotion that betrays him.

then it's over. relief. 4 poets again.

below...pictures from a recent visit