Cafe Media

A new home,
a new café,
the same activity:
People watching.
An iced drink before me,
I have a view
consisting of eight women,
across five channels.

Channel 1: She’s white, and wears short pants exposing somewhat thick legs. She eats from a black plastic bowl, and drinks something orange. Black bangs caress the top of her pretty face.

Channel 2: Two girls, very attractive. One in sandals, the other is fashionable heeled boots. The girl in books is turned away from me, has thick curls in her hair. The one in sandals is something Middle Eastern. They study.

Channel 3: Two Asian girls talk with their hands. One is dumpy; Vietnamese, Chinese, I’m not sure. The other is Japanese. She pretends to talk.

Channel 4: The background of channel 3. Two Indian girls, separate tables, study independently. One leaves. Seven women.

Channel 5: Black, facing away from me. Static.

[click]
Channel 3: On closer inspection, her thin frame, and defined features - she’s Filipino, not Japanese. She moves her lips as her hands whirl. She stuffs food in her mouth, her hands resuming the conversation as she chews. Oddly erotic – I wish I could read the subtitles.
[click]
Channel 1: I watch her eat. Her small lips swivel. Absolutely tantalizing.
[click]
Channel 2: The girl in sandals bites her thin lower lip, her tongue presses against her cheek.
Her lips are glossed.
[click]
Channel 1: She writes something on a napkin. Her lips are parted. Gods…sexy!
[click]
Channel 3: Her lips form words so gorgeously, they don’t even need sound.
[click]
Channel 2: The girl in boots, her hair covers all of her face from me but her mouth. It opens, closes, opens a little, more, less, as she thinks, talks, reads.
[click]
Channel 4: Boring.
[click]
Channel 5: Static.
[click]
Channel 1: When she smiles, her lips remain rounded, showing her small white teeth.
[click]
Channel 2: A Middle Eastern profile against the drawn window shade. Her lips form a heart.
[click]
Channel 3: They’ve left. Canceled. I watch an empty screen for a few minutes.
[click]
Channel 2: She runs her tongue swiftly over her top lip.
[click]

My drink is finished,
so I stop watching.
Picking up my trash,
putting away my books,
I hope they didn’t notice
as I wrote this.