from the log lady...

Ruth Stone

Male Gorillas


At the doughnut shop
twenty-three silverbacks
are lined up at the bar,
sitting on the stools.
It’s morning coffee and trash day.
The waitress has a heavy feeling face,
considerate with carmine lipstick.
She doesn’t brown my fries.
I have to stand at the counter
and insist on my order.
I take my cup of coffee to a small
inoffensive table along the wall.
At the counter the male chorus line
is lined up tight.
I look at their almost identical butts;
their buddy hunched shoulders,
the curve of their ancient spines.
They are methodically browsing
in their own territory.
This data goes into that vast
confused library, the female mind.

*

Very Twin Peaks. A strong presentation of setting that’s made all the more powerful because of the matter-of-fact force of each line. Stone, obviously, believes in this poem, and that makes me a believer as well. I really like the “small / inoffensive table along the wall”.

Such a marvelous glimpse into clear and absolute psychological distinctions.