a guy told me how to pick up a girl
at a bar
he compliments something
arbitrary
like her shoes
asks her if she comes here often,
what her favorite candy is,
what her favorite drink is, and
believes he sounds charming,

he’ll be the same guy
once he’s middle aged
and married,
that goes up to a cashier
and says,
“if there’s no price tag,
doesn’t that make it free?”
and cracking up
he won’t notice that the cashier’s laughter
isn’t natural, but

small talk, the artificial
fruit flavoring of life,
a series
of prepackaged conversations

no surprises
efficient language,
bad jokes
and kind gestures
mass produced.

journalists go to school to learn how to write
sound bites for newspapers,
and feel qualified to analyze
political science,
like a wild life painter
who has never been in the wilderness
using colors he learned to make associations,

candy tastes cherry
when it’s been dyed with red 40
and it tastes lemon
because of yellow 5 and yellow 6,
with no real difference in flavor
it will taste the way we think it should.

i was at a public clinic
to get an s.t.d. test,
it turned out to be
a harmless heat rash,
but in the waiting room
i ran into a girl i kinda know.

neither of us were visibly sick,
i said hi and she said it back
the conversation was a
modified starch
strictly avoiding the usual questions of

“how are you doing?”
“what brings you here?”
i did not want the word to get around
that i might not be as desirable
as i appear

so i told her i liked her shoes,
then seeing the magazine rack
asked if she had read the new
time or newsweek,
she responded that she didn’t like
consumer driven writing
it lacks substance. and

sensing my awkwardness,
she said, “i was eating out the other day, and
i noticed some pain,
i think it might be an infection
from a cavity i had filled.”

i faked a laugh, “that’s what brings me here too,”
short, sweet, and to the point.