YOU TOO

She was not impressed by me
no matter the lies I told.

You may not know this about me
I said,
but I was in this band,
You Two.
You were in U2?
She asked,
eye ra’aised
No, ha ha. We got that a lot.
No:
Y O U space T W O.
A short word that collects a lot of Scrabble points.
We played east village dives
a lot more
than they wanted us to.

I’m sure you’re not surprised,
she said
looking around the bar
that I’d never heard of you.

Of course, of course.
Maybe you read my novel?
No, she said.
You don’t know the name yet.
I don’t read fiction,
she replied.
It was very good, I said softly.

She wasn’t into it
(IT being ME)
or anything I had to offer
which I guess serves her right.
She’ll never know
The prize she might have received
had she only ignored what I said
and saw beneath,
what I was,
THAT prize
would have been great
Her loss.