When I see a woman at the Cottage Bakery
immersed in Ulysses or The Brothers Karamazov
my desires align themselves in neat rows

for the march into liberated Paris—we do not
speak, it would destroy the delicate balance
of our agendas for truth and beauty

(in love the best goes unspoken, reflective
as mulled cider)—her eyes catching mine in the act,
mine feigning interest in yesterday’s pastries.

SCOTT COFFEL teaches technical communications at the University of Iowa, where he received an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. His poems have appeared in Salmagundi, Paris Review, Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, Antioch Review, MARGIE, and The American Scholar, with work forthcoming in The Adirondack Review, Seneca Review, and Barrow Street.