Another Ride

San Diego, California (2021)

Her pumps are reddish,

Like the flesh of a blood orange,

Sweet, almost bitter,

Click-clack, she saunters to the café counter.

Long blond hair, straight,

Dangles to the top of her ass,

As a black dress hugs the curves,

Like hardtop across a thirsty desert.

But who were you before?

Not two years ago,

Not even twenty packets of 365 days,

You know, before before . . . or are you new?

Human for the first time, perhaps?

Struggling to fit into these four limbs,

This upright gait,

But no, not you with that perfected click-clack saunter.

Here before,

Like me, again and again,

Like so many other rambling sparks,

Stuffed into meat sacks . . . 

. . . eager for another ride.