Three girls arrived in all loveliness
that is the blossoming of women,
and sat at a table near mine
in bright conversation.
Suddenly two boys appeared
like lightening without the storm
and sat down with them slovenly,
pink knees jagged through jean holes
and caps backward like their lives.
The girls fell unnaturally quiet,
as if in the presence of bishops,
whose language and dress
they could scarcely fathom
but whose authority they could sense.
2002