Up the Staircase: Jana Russ

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Dinner

He asked if I was hungry
I wasn't, but I wanted
to watch him eat. I wanted
to sit across the table, let words
spill like wine between us,
drop like pebbles into
deep water. I wanted to see
him touch the cup, make
small smiles around the knife
and fork. I wanted to hold
my own thoughts,
reflected in crystal,
poised at the edge
of a plate, waiting
for a hand on the back
of the chair, his fingers
at the nape
of my neck.

©Jana Russ

Jana Russ teaches Chinese History and World Literatures at The University of Akron. She recently finished an MFA with the Northeast Ohio Universities Comsortium (NEOMFA). Her poetry has been published in Riverwind, Poetry Midwest, Juicebox, and Vibrant-Gray, and in a forthcoming anthology: Women.Period (Spinsters Ink, August 2008).