A RIDDLE: JANUARY 1970

Who is this woman?
She sits on the arm
of the sofa, with her dress
riding up her thighs
and her arm over her legs
as if to cover more.
This is the first night
she isn't wearing those baggy
wool plaid slacks.

She's been in New York
for four months now
and she's making friends.
Yes, Daniela and Frani
are her friends.
They mean well.
Daniela dragged her husband
up to this woman's hotel room
New Years Eve,
even bringing a bottle of wine.
But she didn't have a corkscrew.

And Frani set her up
with a young male writer.
And she blew that one also,
she couldn't look him in the face
for six months after that.
But she was so grateful
for their advice and friendship
she would have done almost anything
to please them. She really didn't
know how to be a friend then,
did she?

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Copyright © 1997 by Rochelle Ratner.

Light and Dust Mobile Anthology of Poetry.