Still Sick

I’m sorry, I’m disappearing again. My cough is persisting, no matter what I try to do to stop it. I’m loaded with homework, and I’ve been doing an internship at amNewYork, this free paper in NYC.  I wrote a short article, which got published in it the other day, so I’ll post it here soon. For now, a poem I wrote for class:

On Making New Friends

For Matt

Scope out the landscape

for someone who looks alone.

Not necessarily lonely,

but unaccompanied.

Sit near them,

but not too close.

Stare for a while.

Right before they catch your eye,

look away.

Peer out the window.

Dig through your bag.

Shuffle through your Ipod.

But don’t try to look cool,

because then you won’t.

Notice them looking at you.

Float a smile somewhere

in their direction but

not exactly at them.

Let them wonder.

Check your watch a few times.

Make it seem like you

have somewhere to be.

Scribble something in your notepad.

Look bored.

Stand up.

Stretch languidly.

Glance at them as if to say

Why haven’t you

approached me yet?

Make them think

that you’re leaving

but at the last moment

place a slip of paper

on their lap, with

your name on it.

Run away.

Laugh to yourself.

Give them some time.

They don’t want to look desperate.

But if they track you down,

or, rather, when they track you down,

because they will,

you have successfully made a new friend.