Anastasia in all her youthful beauty,
Sat down on the train across from me.
My eyes in magnetic bedazzlement
Were, at once, drawn to her.
But I was embarrassed to look.
And invade her privacy.
And then beautiful Pavlova came aboard
And sat across the aisle, facing me.
Now my eyes had two magnetic norths
And alternated between the two
With bursts of shame when looking at one
And relief when not looking at the other,
Which then changed, relief for shame,
As my eyes alternated between the two.
I was sure of each one’s pique
At being glimpsed at…
Until one, then the other, smiled.