Avoidance

I’m doing my best not to notice you 
sitting across the hall, your back turned 
trying not to notice me. 
I knew you’d be coming up those stairs 
in this building, to this hall, to that room, 
but I had nowhere else to go. 

You ruined my rendezvous 
with your good friend. 
We had planned to meet for coffee 
for her and nothing for me, 
to talk and see how each other were. 
The two of us arrived at the same time. 
She saw you first. 
You saw me next. 
I never saw you. 
It doesn’t help matters 
that we both haunt the same places. 

I avoid eating lunch, 
because if I eat, 
I’ll eat alone. 
You and all our friends 
on one side of the room 
as I try to hide on the other. 
How do you hide a private pain 
in a place as public as a cafeteria? 

Our city dodges hurricanes 
like bullets fired 
from the African coast. 
I dodge the glances 
I hope you give me.