Our third date, at the same bar
as our first,
elbows edging across
a cold, polished table top.
Our second date, an anomaly,
at a Chinese restaurant,
its patrons elbow-to-elbow.
we were confused by ours
so close to theirs, and by each other.
Forbes once said (in a poem):
‘continually disappoint
the expectations of others,
this way you will come to hate yourself
& they will be charmed by your distress.’
As I wait for my hand
to find yours, I chant it
to myself, a mantra
for our parting, our eyes
spearing at the dark.
Prithvi Varatharajan is a writer, audio book producer, and commissioning editor at Cordite Poetry Review. His writing (poems, reviews, interviews, scholarship) has appeared widely in Australian and overseas journals.
