Longer than advertised

by dina pfeffer

Mostly, things take longer than advertised

Love, chemotherapy, waiting for a taxi

If I were in a movie I would sit 

In the bodega door for a second, not a month

I wait and a taxi never comes

Sharp clicking boots throw change in my cup

Cosmopolitans have places to be meanwhile

I’m melting through the doorstep

Dripping through my palms

I wait and a taxi never comes

They boarded up the bodega around me

They didn’t touch my seat for fear

Of seeing me. I am a ghost selectively

I’ve lived as long as one

I wait and a taxi never comes

Which car honking is for me

Which brake and bumper whizzing

The crowd is a blanket

How cold I feel when it’s gone

I wait and a taxi never comes