Simone
Shauna Barbosa
Simone with her big knees ballerina skirt. Imagined her in this church the ink on the back of her hands fading falling down her raised arms her mouth slightly whispering to her most high. How we’d look in a photograph. How I’d look to myself to our friends loved ones smiling how we’d look together. Wide knees and thighs glasses dolling tints of blue her hair taking comfort around one shoulder. The end of class brings Simone close to me. She makes note of the time. 7:30, an odd hour. Are we to have dinner before or after class? Was Simone asking me to dinner? A man I don’t know steals her attention I keep walking hungry then stop rustle around with my bag watch them talk each day feels like February frozen on a beach chair. Imagined making love to her not knowing where to begin. Thought about going slow the way he says I don’t like. Each day each day a phone call a voice with good news a promise to return with more information.
SHAUNA BARBOSA lives and writes in Boston, Massachusetts. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Metazen, the minnesota review, and A Bad Penny Review. When she is not writing full poems, she is writing looming half poems somewhere on the Internet. Or event planning. She can be found at http://shaunabarbosa.com.