they met at the coffee service gettin’ one to go me too and he imagined her greeting a black-haired woman for a long-delayed date until she asked where are you going he stopped there’s an Irish place up near the park sounds wonderful would you like to join me

she was in Boston from windy Chicago windier than ever it seemed a physical therapist in private practice he a head librarian from Coney Island complementary info they led with between bright observations about the weather overcast and their walk parked cars a proud theatre black letters on a white marquee gray shop windows under flapping awnings a coffee
store busy cross streets a CVS on a corner children selling pencils he pulled open a wooden door and they took two seats at the bar

hours later in her room finishing a bottle of Bailey’s from a liquor store after she made it clear there was no reason he should relocate four floors when they would just meet again at the coffee service in the morning he plopped onto the queen-size bed and she went away and came back wearing a white robe and high heels

thank you for the opportunity to share these words with you as poetry my voice in your voice in your head as Neil Young never said Live Poetry Is Better or is it

Chuck Joy, poet, Erie PA, Pennsylvania’s claim to the south shore of a Great Lake. Both parents from western New York. Attended Fordham University, Rose Hill Campus. University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. After four wild and wonderful years in West Virginia returned to Erie married, a
child psychiatrist, with poetry published in Bogg, Medicinal Purposes, and Chiron Review and already live appearances eventually including Parkside Lounge. A current collection of Chuck’s poems is Vinyl from What Why Aesthetics available wherever books are sold by order.