Woman in a Café

Sweet, nervous, thin,

the pretty young woman,

mocha-skinned,

sits alone in the corner.

Oh, why the corner?

As if you were a moon and

not the sun!

Hunched over coffee,

hands in her lap,

she is like a closed tome.

Lips twitching, dark eyes

full of steam. Hunched over coffee,

in whose darkness

she sees everything.

Her long-fingered hand,

delicate as a leaf, 

reaches, shaking, for the mug.

She lifts it to her thin lips,

cautiously, drinks.

Eyebrows raised, so purposeful,

and her dark eyes, so vigilant.

Replacing her hand in her lap,

she sits up tall,

her long thin neck,

so graceful!

She stares into space,

amazed, and perplexed.

Oh, dark haired girl!

Oh, complex soul!

Look my way 

and release your hidden smile

to me, the dark half

of our undiscovered world.