Portrait of Pink, or Blush

when today at a bistro

an elderly couple in jeans, leather

bomber jackets, and heeled boots

stepped down from their stools

to stand and go home—

him behind her,

his bomber jacket zipper

a spine at her back,

him wrapping on her scarf

the heart-shaped cookie she nibbled

the shape of her mouth,

that cookie, puffy,

with still-soft icing white and rose—

I learned

the anthropology of blush