A blonde girl on a scooter whizzes by
in a yellow tulip-patterned dress
wide red belt
red hibiscus in her hair

Going the other way
a thin brown-skinned girl in black
strides by as if she's queen of the world

You eat blue soup ― leek and purple potato
I eat yellow-tomato gazpacho
at a table with a patterned orange cloth

The dark-eyed waiter
reels off an exotic menu
as if he were a poet of some exotic origin

The breeze from the wide open doors quiets us
this summer evening
in the city