Beau Boudreaux
I’m the one
inside the crowded bistro
reading alone
with an untouched martini
a young woman in floral dress
pedals by
and there’s a boy cross-legged
at the trolley stop fumbling papers
why close the sculpture garden at night…
I’ve never been to Boston
Baltimore or Philly—
the window, people sip
outside the coffeeshop
form a patio
may be too much
with myself
like a cheap shot
of tequila after many rounds with friends
is not last year, but a decade
when I sat for the first time
through a matinee
sunshine cooking car seats
a shock sitting into
like biting a lemon
Beau Boudreaux
Beau Boudreaux is a poet and professor in Continuing Studies at Tulane University in New Orleans. His poems have recently appeared in Antioch Review, Cream City Review, and Margie
