The poet's delicate hands
that scribbled furiously last night
in golden incantations
today sift through coins
each in its place
reflecting on money
which brought her here-
the fast food restaurant-
last resort of jobless
but the best pay an unwanted poet
could get

the poet dreams
poetic dreams
wishing to transform
a room of metal shelving
and so many empty boxes
each broke down by her poetic hands
transform by thought alone
into beauty
there must be beauty in cardboard boxes
if she could train her mind
to see it

The lover's tall and slender body
Caressed last night by her dearest love
Reaches to the high shelf
To put to dry, to store
the metal containers
for pickles and tomatoes,
to cover and garnish the meat
devoured by the customers here
And her mind wanders
And she wishes her tired body
Could collapse this instant
Into her lover's arms
And be held there, forever

But the lover's mind knows
that joys are fleeting
and must be earned
by her labor here
so she accepts her fate
once more
and flees only in her mind
while her body
hangs up the tongs
and goes back to work

The girl's perceptive eyes
Meet with the little child
In the backseat of the car
Through the drive-through window
the beautiful eyes sparkling
like all children
like that of the child
born of her womb,
like the child that was her,
it seems not long ago,
She makes a funny face,
And smiles with the child
Dreaming of the days
Before people figured out
They were supposed to hate each other