A Widower Goes to The Mall

On her birthday I go alone
down to the Great Northern Mall
and sit on a bench in front of JC Penney,
drinking hot coffee and reading Yeats.

The Mall buzzes with electric noise,
the inside air bright and warm,
yet seeming a winter's darkness.
Busy silent people swarm about me.

I feel invisible, an alien.
I pretend to wait for her
as she shops,
and I become disconcerted.

She is taking too long.