Runaway Cafe I

by Marilyn Hacker

You hailed a cab outside the nondescript
yuppie bar on Lexington to go
downtown. Hug; hug; this time I brushed my lips
just across yours, and fire down below
in February flared. O bless and curse
what's waking up no wiser than it was.
I will not go to bed with you because
I want to very much. If that's perverse,
there are, you'll guess, perversions I'd prefer:
fill the lacunae in: one; two; three; four...
I did, cab gone. While my late bus didn't come
desire ticked over like a metronome.
For you, someone was waiting up at home.
For me, I might dare more if someone were.

from Love, Death, and the Changing of Seasons.