7.10.2026

DREAM THAT BEGINS AT THE COLONNADE CAFETERIA

Photo: Garrett Rowland

An old lover eats my mislaid lunch,
hers for the taking. Nothing

for me now but to stare at the crumbs
she didn’t want. Should I say

something? You never even liked me
and you don’t respect me now.

She moves in to embrace me. You’d think
I must not have heard a word

I just said, because I’m inside her
arms. But I’m holding my own

straight at my sides, hard as steel, stainless
as cafeteria rails.