Poem at the Twin Donuts

By Paul Hostovsky

The girl who rings me up at the Twin Donuts
is wearing a T shirt that says BREAKFAST SANDWICH
in big letters across her chest. “How’s the breakfast
sandwich?” I ask her, not looking at her breasts
because I am by nature a fearful and shy man
and because I like talking about things without naming them
the way you sometimes can in poems. “It’s really good,” she says,
and gives me a smile that says she doesn’t
like poetry but likes this poem so far. “I would love
to have that breakfast sandwich every single morning
of my life,” I tell her as I give her the money
for my coffee and apple cruller. “Then you must change
your order,” she says, misquoting the last line
of Rilke’s “Archaic Torso of Apollo.” I look down
at my cup, my cruller oozing apple, then furtively at her lovely young
torso. “Life!” I correct her as she hands me my change,
frowning at me now, not with displeasure but
concentration, like she’s really trying to get this poem.