Parallel Play


she's reading a book
    i look out the window

she shifts noisily in her seat
    I look inside my bag

she pretends to sleep
    I stare at the title of my book

she stands up to open her bag in the rack
    I watch the slight wobble of her bottom

she sits down
    I put my bag on the rack

she opens her book
    I unfold my newspaper

        parallel play
        fun flirting this way

    i start to smile
    and look across the aisle
   
she looks across at me
just as I peep across at her

        both, wrong-footed, grin

I gesture at the empty seats
"The train's so full there
isn't anywhere to sit.
May I sit with you?"

        we now can play
        a parallel way
        by touch and stroke

she stands up to pack
her jacket in the rack

    I stroke her skirt
    where it's tight across her cute
    little bottom

she sits quickly down
    my hands go up her shirt

She reads her book
    I pull tight and read beneath her clothes

she lifts her broadsheet wide
so what my hands are doing, it hides

        and so we play
        as we go our way
        She to Dewsbury
        and her mum and home
        Me to Hull
        to study on my own
       
* * * * *