Loretta
Loretta's Not Here This Summer,
or She Met a Man
Loretta is prettier than usual.
Sixty eight, anyone would say
she's very pretty. Hair swings like
a high school girl. Even her color
is good. Brown that everyone tries for.
Eyes bright blue, loose Indian Kurta shirts
toes painted red
she always looks ready
still it's taken her three years
since Will died suddenly
three years of intense
going online
Plenty of Fish her favorite site
although she said there weren't.
Loretta said she mostly throws them back in.
A few were married and didn't tell her. Fish
number 58 the right one, finally.
He wore cowboy boots on their first date.
Wanted her to meet him in a parking lot
of a shopping mall just an hour away.
She was suspicious. Couldn't they at least meet
at Dunkin Donuts, a bar, even one of those diners
on the highway? She knew he had his reasons. He
had it in his head that they would walk through
the door together their very first door of an Italian
restaurant in the mall. She calls hi Tex behind his back.
His name is Ed. She invited her book group
we talked more about her dates
for three years than any one book
to their wedding. Now we'll have to spend
more time just reading.