the booth

a marg pizza

steaming hot

sits upon its platter

between a pair of

young lovers occupying

a corner booth

isolated from wandering eyes

of pizza-parlour patrons.

piece by piece

a shared meal;

an engaged conversation;

peeling back layers,

while satisfying hunger.

...

only one month ago

when i'd decided

you were allowed to enter

and now here i sit

not in the booth...

but from where i sit,

i can see it so clearly:

an image so vivid it's almost as though

the couple that now occupies

what was once our own

private love-cave

could be our own bodies.

but it's not that day

and it's not us

and this evening

it's not you on the other side

of a steaming margarita pizza

but rather,

an empty chair

and a wish that it'd be only you

sitting right there.