A NIGHT AT THE OPERA
Gretchen Fletcher

I watched as she bound her hair
in a gold mesh snood
and buttoned his tux studs
before they left for the Met,
"to hear Lohengrin," they said.

Too young for Wagner,
I lay on someone else's bed
in a circle of cold light
crisscrossed with moonshadows
cast by maple tree limbs
on someone else's street

and picked at the soft, pink tufts
of someone else's chenille spread
while listening to their clock tick
on their crocheted dresser scarf
and felt as lonely as "Lohengrin" sounded.