What Is A Lonely Woman? Poem by RIC BASTASA

when you greet me first
and say hello and ask if i am ok
when i also talk to you
and it will be long
and we are not tired
honing words like cleaning a bottle
or making a
glass figurine shine against the light

when i listen, when i stop doing other things
giving you time,

and then inside myself i make a definition of you
and then
i say, 'oh i perfectly understand the situation'

and it doesn't bother me.