Kenneth Pobo

MARY'S DINER

Short stack, bacon,
coffee strong and a window-side
jukebox.  I'm wearing my

CRIMSON & CLOVER
BY TOMMY JAMES & THE SHONDELLS

t-shirt.  A table away,
a man and a woman,
maybe fifty, around my age,
blab, laugh about gays. Again

I realize how difficult
it is not to take the glass
sugar shaker
and throw it full-speed
at them both.