He leans eagerly
across the table,
talks rapidly,
wants to impress,
to please. “Don’t sell me,”
she says,
and he deflates
for an instant,
then goes back
for another try.

Not a first date,
nor the fifteenth,
But a long-standing
lover’s quarrel,
Unfolding with
predictability.
His pleading, her
tears, his command
To calm down,
“it’s no big deal.”

How long
before they drop
the script? Some
couples never do.
Not even on
their wedding day.
In his eyes,
a desperate hope
that she will
forgive him
again.