The Tuesday Poem

In a Restaurant in Nova Gorica, Slovenia, April 2012

She’s chosen her jumper well,

black, a dramatic contrast to her hair —

long and ropey blonde hair,

dyed (though you’d look hard to notice),

the strands falling randomly down from her neck

to lie vivid against her jet-black top.

I hope she’s a good friend.

I hope the young man she faces,

looking up now and then from his pasta,

thinks her face, which I cannot see,

compensation for however much of his life

has been in her service.

I hope he envisions her hair as it soon may be,

beneath her, spread out on her pillow,

framing a face that confronts him only with love.

* Knute Skinner was born in St Louis, Missouri, and now lives in Co Clare. He has taught at the University of Iowa and at Western Washington University, where he was a Professor of English. His memoir, Help Me to a Getaway, appeared in 2010, and his most recent collection of poems, Concerned Attentions, was published last year.