Appetite
(by Suzanne Baldwin Leitner)
Why do I begrudge
the older woman beside me
in the café
the noise her soup spoon
makes as it scrapes
bowl’s bottom?
Is it because she seems hurried
furtive and afraid
as if she thinks
she is taking up too much
space and
for too long?
The rattle of her ample
metal spoon
on the brittle white
finish of the bowl:
Comfort
and emptiness.
I came here to eat,
not think.